As Folle Avoine had insinuated that his father Achiganaga was an accessory to the murder, the latter was brought into the presence of his four sons, and when the latter were asked if he had advised them to kill the Frenchmen they answered, "No."
"This confrontation," writes Du Luth, "which the savages did not expect, surprised them, and seeing the prisoners had convicted themselves, the chiefs in council said, 'It is enough; you accuse yourselves; the French are masters of your bodies.'"
On the 28th another council was held in the lodge of the chief Brochet, where it was hoped that the Indians would say what ought to be done, but it only ended "in reducing tobacco to ashes."
On the 29th all the French at the Sault were called together, and the questions to, and answers of the prisoners read, after which it was the unanimous opinion that three of the sons were guilty. As only two Frenchmen had been killed Du Luth and De la Tour, the Superior of the Jesuit mission, decided that only Folle Avoine, and the brother next in age to him, should suffer the penalty of the law.
Du Luth then returned to the lodge of Brochet, accompanied by Boisguillot,[1] Peré, De Repentigny, De Manthet, De la Ferte, and Maçons. Here were gathered all the chiefs of the Outawas du Sable, Outawas Sinagos, Kiskakons, Sauteurs, D'Achiliny, some Hurons and Oumamens, the chief of the Amikoues, and Du Luth announced that the Frenchmen had been killed, and it had been decided that two of those engaged in the murder should be put to death, and left the council. The Jesuit missionaries now baptized the culprits, and Du Luth writes: "An hour after I put myself at the head of forty-two Frenchmen, and in sight of more than four hundred savages, and
- ↑ Boisguillot was afterwards a trader near the mouth of the Wisconsin.
