of the Indians deserted, having heard that there was a smallpox epidemic among the Miamis. The Miamis later alleged that thirty French soldiers accompanied the Indians but did not take part in the raid. Early on the morning of 21 June 1752, Langlade arrived at the village with 240 Indians and one other unidentified Frenchman. They lay in wait until most of the village's population was outside the fort or working in the cornfields. Launching their attack at about 9 a.m., the warriors killed 13 Miami men and captured four women. About twenty men and boys, including five English traders, took refuge in the fort, but three traders locked themselves in a cabin, and although they had guns and ammunition, were too frightened to open fire, and were eventually captured. The attackers negotiated terms of surrender with those inside the fort, presenting wampum belts as a token of good faith and promising that if they gave up the traders, the attackers would return the four captured Miami women, take the traders and leave. As they were heavily outnumbered and had no water, the fort's well having gone dry, the Miamis decided to hand over three of the five English traders, one of whom (a blacksmith) was badly injured from a gunshot wound to his abdomen. The Ottawas killed this man, cut out his heart and ate it in front of the Miami men, to atone for the death of Ottawa warriors killed in the attack. Among Algonquian and Iroquoian peoples, the hearts of the victims were often devoured to add the power of the deceased to whoever consumed it. Two other traders, gunsmith Thomas Burney and Andrew McBryer, "whom the Indians hid," escaped with the help of the Miamis, fled "during the night" and made their way to Lower Shawneetown. Langlade's men then seized the Miami chief Memeskia, and he was killed, boiled and eaten "within a hundred yards of the fort" in front of his Miami men. This act represented a symbolic re-incorporation of Memeskia into the French alliance. One source reports that they killed two more of the English traders. Afterward the Ottawa released the Miami women, as well as Memeskia's wife and son, burned the English stockade and the trading post and left for Detroit with the captured Englishmen and £3000 worth of trade goods (more than $300,000 worth in today's dollars). The trader William Ives passed