On the 24th of April, 1615, Champlain left Honfleur with four missionaries (Jesuits) on board his vessel, and arrived without accident at Tadoussac on the 25th May. He proceeded immediately to the Sault St. Louis, when his first care was to arrange a treaty with the friendly Indians to assist them in their wars, on condition of their facilitating his enterprises of discovery, and with the view of advancing the progress of Christianity among them. By helping them to slay their enemies, he hoped to induce them to worship his God!
The Indians were to furnish two thousand five hundred warriors; and Champlain was to take as many men as he could, and besides, to give his allies some instruction in discipline, etc., which they received with great satisfaction, but, as by and by will be seen, by which they profited little.
Having arranged this matter, Champlain returned to the settlement to provide for the good conduct of all affairs during his proposed absence, and, on the 9th of June, started with an interpreter and another European, "myself third," he says, and ten savages, and by the Rivière des Prairies pursued his route to the Algenquin country; from thence he continued by land to the lake of the Nipiserini (Lake Nipissing) in 45-1/4° of latitude, where he arrived on the 26th of the same month, and remained two days; from thence he descended a river (Rivière des François) to the great Lake Attigouantan (Lake Huron), where he met some three hundred natives, with whom he "contracted friendship," making the chief a present of a hatchet, "with which he was as contented and joyful as if I had given him some rich present." The next day he continued his route along the shores of the lake to a village called Cahiagué, where the "army" was to rendezvous, having overtaken on the way thirteen or fourteen Frenchmen who had started before him from the Rivière des Prairies. He arrived at Cahiagué on the 17th of August, and was received with great gratitude and rejoicing by the Indians, who informed him that another and very warlike nation, the Entouhoronins(?), would join them with five hundred fighting men against the common enemy,--the Iroquois. The greater part of the "army" being assembled, they started together from the village on the 1st of September, and pursued their route, hunting as they went. On the 9th of October their scouts took eleven prisoners, "four women, one girl, three boys, and three men;" whereupon one of the chiefs began tormenting a female prisoner by cutting off one of her fingers; at which Champlain indignantly interfered, and blamed the chief, "Captain Yroquet," severely, representing that it was unworthy of a warrior, as he called himself, to behave cruelly to women, "who have no defence but their tears, and who, on account of their '_like those of families_' should be humanely treated," and that if such cruelties were continued, he could neither assist nor favour them in the war; so seeing that Champlain was seriously displeased, "Captain Yroquet" promised in future to spare the women, and only torment the men! On the following day, about three o'clock, they arrived before the enemy's fort, and commenced skirmishing, driving him into his entrenchments; after which the "allies" withdrew out of the enemy's sight, which seems to have angered Champlain extremely, moving him "to use and say rude and angry words to incite them to do their duty," not according to their councils, but in conformity with his notions. He proposed to construct a "cavallier," a sort of high platform, to overlook the enemy's palisades, in which five or six arquebusiers being placed would soon dislodge the foe; also "mantelets," or large shields, to protect them from arrows or stones. This being done, they attacked the fort, his arquebusiers doing great execution; but his allies seconded him so badly, making all kinds of blunders, that, after three hours combat, two of their chiefs and about fifteen of their men being wounded, and Champlain himself hurt in the leg and knee by arrows, they withdrew, in spite of all his remonstrances, and to his great indignation and disgust, saying, that when the five hundred promised men should arrive, they would attack the enemy again. The skirmishing continued till the 9th, in which the enemy seems to have had the best of it, as Champlain and his men were always obliged to bring off their friends, the enemy retreating at sight of them, dreading their firearms, "urging, by firm persuasion, that we ought not to mix in their quarrels," which was perfectly true.