Conjuring, dancing to the hideous
pounding of drums, feasting and smoking, were their amusements.
On his way back Hendry revisited the French post on the
Saskatchewan. The leader, no doubt St. Luc de la Corne, had
returned from Montreal and now had with him nine men. "The
master," says Hendry, " invited me in to sup with him, and was
very kind. He is dressed very Genteel." He showed Hendry his
stock of furs; "a brave parcel," the admiring rival thought.
Hendry admits the superiority of the French as traders. They
"talk Several Languages to perfection; they have the advantage of
us in every shape." In the West, as in the East, France was
recognized as a formidable rival of England for the mastery of
North America.
When Hendry was making his peaceful visit to the French fort in
1755, the crisis of the struggle had just been reached. In that
year the battle line from Acadia to the Ohio and the Mississippi
was already forming, and the fate of France's eager efforts to
hold the West was soon to be decided in the East. If Britain
should conquer on the St.
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