[Illustration: "Picking up the enemies' weapons."]
Surville was extremely anxious to capture an Indian, who might serve him as a guide, and who, convinced of the superiority of European weapons, might warn his countrymen against opposing the French. With this view, he hit upon a singular expedient. He ordered two n***o sailors to be placed on board the pirogue he had seized, had their heads powdered, and disguised them so cleverly that the natives were likely to be deceived.
In fact, a pirogue soon after approaching the Saint-Jean Baptiste , the men who were in it, seeing what they took to be two of their own people trafficking with the strangers, drew nearer. So soon as the French imagined they were at a fair distance, they launched two boats in pursuit. The natives gained ground; it wa
