Of course the children returned home, and the only three men who had been left at the post (three old men) went after their scalps.

They had not returned when we arrived; but in the evening they entered the river with the scalps of the two Umbiquas, whom they had surprised, and the canoes, which were safely deposited in the store.
Our position was indeed a strong one.

Fronting us to the north we had a large and rapid river; on the south we were Banked by a ditch forty feet broad and ten feet deep, which isolated the building from a fine open ground, without my bush, tree, or cover; the two wings were formed by small brick towers twenty feet high, with loop-holes, and a door ten feet from the ground; the ladder to which, of course, we took inside.
The only other entrance, the main one, in fact, was by water: but it could be approached only by swimming.

The fort was built of stone and brick, while the door, made of thick posts, and lined with sheets of copper, would have defied, for a long time, the power of their axes or fire.

Our only anxiety was about the inflammable quality of the roof, which was covered with pine shingles.