The dispersion of the flotilla favored this, and
six conspiring Frenchmen hid behind the rocks and attacked and killed five
Englishmen who were known to possess much treasure. Robbing the bodies,
they took to the stream again, leaving the bloody corpses on the bank.
Those who saw them had no time to think of avenging them.
Gradually the river grew wider and deeper and its course less impetuous.
The cascades were all passed, but the stream was obstructed by floating or
anchored tree-trunks, by which many of the piperies were overturned and
their occupants drowned. To avoid this danger the piperies were now
abandoned and the freebooters divided themselves into detachments and
began to build large canoes from the forest trees. Four of these, carrying
one hundred and thirty men, were soon ready and their builders again took
to the stream. Of the fate of the others, who remained behind, no further
account is given by the historian of this adventure.
On the 9th of March, sixty days after their departure from the Pacific,
the adventurers reached the river's mouth, having completed their
remarkable feat of crossing the continent in the face of the most
threatening perils from man and nature.
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