Ticonderoga: A Story of Early Frontier Life in the Mohawk Valley

by G. P. R. James

  CHAPTER III

  The hour of breakfast had arrived when Walter Prevost returned withhis river spoil; but the party at the house had not yet sat down totable. The guest who had arrived on the preceding night was standingat the door talking with Edith, while Mr. Prevost himself was withinin conference with some of the slaves. Shaded by the little rusticporch, Edith was leaning against the door post in an attitude ofexquisite grace, and the stranger, with his arms crossed upon hisbroad, manly chest, now raising his eyes to her face, now droppingthem to the ground, seemed to watch with interest the effect his wordsproduced as it was written on that beautiful countenance.

  "I know not," said the stranger, speaking as the young man approached,"I know not how I should endure it myself for any length of time. Themere abstract beauty of nature would, soon pall upon my taste, I fear,without occupation."

  "But you would make occupation," answered Edith, earnestly; "you wouldfind it. Occupation for the body is never wanting when you have toimprove and cultivate and ornament; and occupation flows in from athousand gushing sources in God's universe--even were one deprived ofbooks and music."

  "Aye, but companionships and social converse, and the interchange ofthought with thought," said the stranger; "where could one findthose?" and he raised his eyes to her face.

  "Have I not my brother and my father?" she asked.

  "True, you have," said the other; "but I should have no suchresource."

  He had seen a slight hesitation in her last reply. He thought that hehad touched the point where the yoke of solitude galled the spirit. Hewas not the one to plant or to nourish discontent in anyone, and heturned at once to her brother, saying: "What, at the stream so early,my young friend? Have you had sport?"

  "Not very great," answered Walter. "My fish are few, but they arelarge. Look here!"

  "I call such sport excellent," said the stranger, looking into thebasket. "I must have you take me with you some fair morning, for I ama great lover of the angle."

  The lad hesitated, and turned somewhat redder in the cheek than he hadbeen the moment before; but his sister saved him from reply, saying,in a musing tone: "I cannot imagine what delight men feel in what theycall the sports of the field. To inflict death may be a necessity, butsurely should not be an amusement."

  "Man is a born hunter, Miss Prevost," replied the stranger, with asmile. "He must chase something. Oh, my dear young lady! few can tellthe enjoyment, in the midst of busy, active, troublous life, of onecalm day's angling by the side of a fair stream, with quiet beauty allaround us, and no adversary but the speckled trout."

  "And why should they be your foes?" asked Edith. "Why should you dragthem from their cool, clear element to pant and die in the dry upperair?"

  "'Cause we want to eat? em," said a voice from the door behind her;"they eats everything. Why shou'dn't we eat them? Darn this world; itis but a place for eating and being eaten. The bivers that I trap eatfish, and many a cunning trick the crafty critters use to catch 'em;the minks eat birds and birds' eggs. Men talk about beasts of prey.Why, everything is a beast of prey, eating the oxen and the sheep, andsuch like; and sometimes I have thought it hard to kill them, whonever do harm to no one, and a great deal of good sometimes. But come,Master Walter, don't ye keep them fish in the sun. Give 'em to blackRosie, the cook, and let us have some on 'em for breakfast aforethey're all wilted up."

  The man who spoke might have been five feet five or six in height, andwas anything but corpulent. Yet he was in chest and shoulders as broadas a bull; and though the lower limbs were more lightly formed thanthe upper, yet the legs, as well as the arms, displayed strong,rounded muscles, swelling forth at every movement. His hair was asblack as jet, without the slightest mixture of gray, though he couldnot be less than fifty-four or fifty-five years of age; and his face,which was handsome, with features somewhat eagle-like, was browned byexposure to a color nearly resembling that of mahogany. With hisshaggy bearskin cap, well worn, and a frock of deerskin, with the hairon, descending to the knees, he looked more like a bison than anythinghuman; and, half expecting to hear him roar, the stranger wassurprised to trace tones soft and gentle, though somewhat nasal, tosuch a rude and rugged form.

  While Walter carried his basket of fish to the kitchen, and Mr.Prevost's guest was gazing at the newcomer, in whom Edith seemed torecognize an acquaintance, the master of the house himself approachedfrom behind the latter, saying as he came. "Let me make you acquaintedwith Mr. Brooks, Major Kielmansegge--Captain Jack Brooks."

  "Pooh, pooh, Prevost!" exclaimed the other. "Call me by my right name.I was Captain Brooks long agone. I'm new christened, and calledWoodchuck now. That's because I burrow, Major. Them Ingians arewonderful circumdiferous; but they have found that when they trytricks with me, I can burrow under them; and so they call meWoodchuck, 'cause it's a burrowing sort of a beast."

  "I do not exactly understand you," said the gentleman who had beencalled Major Kielmansegge. "What is the exact meaning ofcircumdiferous?"

  "It means just circumventing like," answered the Woodchuck. "First andforemost, there's many of the Ingians--the Algonquin, for asample--never tell a word of truth. No, no, not they. One of them toldme so plainly one day. 'Woodchuck,' says he, 'Ingian seldom telltruth. He know better than that. Truth too good a thing to be usedevery day; keep that for time of need.' I believe at that preciousmoment he spoke the truth the first time for forty years."

  The announcement that breakfast was ready interrupted the explanationof Captain Brooks, but seemed to afford him great satisfaction, and atthe meal, certainly, he ate more than all the rest of the party puttogether, consuming everything set before him with a voracity trulymarvelous. He seemed to think some apology necessary, indeed, for hisfurious appetite. "You see, Major," he said, as soon as he could bringhimself to a pause sufficiently long to utter a sentence, "I eat wellwhen I do eat; for sometimes I eat nothing for four or five daystogether. When I get to a lodge like this, I take in stores for mynext voyage, as I can't tell what port I shall touch at again."

  "Pray, do you anticipate a long cruise just now?" asked the stranger.

  "No! no!" said the other, laughing; "but I always prepare against theworst. I am just going up the Mohawk for a step or two to make a tradewith some of my friends of the Five Nations--the Iroquois, as theFrench folks call them. But I shall trot up afterward to Sandy Hilland Fort Lyman to see what is to be done there in the way of business.Fort Lyman I call it still, though it should be Fort Edward, for afterthe brush with Dieskau it has changed its name. Aye, that was a sharpaffair, Major. You'd ha' liked to bin there, I guess."

  "Were you there, Captain?" asked Mr. Prevost. "I did not know you hadseen so much service."

  "There I was," answered Woodchuck, with a laugh; "though, as toservice, I did more than I was paid for, seeing I had no commission.I'll tell you how it was, Prevost. Just in the beginning ofSeptember--the seventh or eighth, I think--of the year afore last,that is, seventeen fifty-five, I was going up to the head of the laketo see if I could not get some paltry, for I had been unlucky downwestward, and had made a bargain in Albany that I did not like tobreak. Just at the top of the hill, near where the King's road comesdown to the ford, who should I stumble upon amongst the trees but oldHendrick, as they call him--why, I can't tell--the sachem of theTortoise totem of the Mohawks. He was there with three young men athis feet; but we were always good friends, he and I, and over andabove, I carried the calumet, so there was no danger. Well, we satdown, and he told me that the General, that is, Sir William as is now,had dug up the tomahawk, and was encamped near Fort Lyman, to givebattle to You-non-de-yok; that is to say, in their jargon, the Frenchgovernor. He told me, too, that he was on his way to join the General,but that he did not intend to fight, but only to witness the bravedeeds of the Corlear men; that is to say, the English. He was acunning old fox, old Hendrick, and I fancied from that he thought weshould be defeated. But when I asked him, he said, no; that it was allon account of a dream he had had, forbidding hi
m to fight on thepenalty of his scalp. So I told him I was minded to go with him andsee the fun. Well, we mustered before the sun was quite down well nighupon three hundred Mohawks, all beautifully painted and feathered; butthey all told me they had not sung their war song, nor danced theirwar dance before they left their lodges, so I could see well enoughthat they had no intention to fight, and the tarnation devil wouldn'tmake 'em. However, we got to the camp, where they were all busythrowing up breastworks, and we heard that Dieskau was coming downfrom Hunter's in force. The next morning we heard that he had turnedback again from Fort Lyman, and Johnson sent out Williams with sevenor eight hundred men to get hold of his haunches. I tried hard to getold Hendrick to go along, for I stuck fast by my Ingians, knowing thebrutes can be serviceable when you trust them. But the sachem onlygrunted, and did not stir. In an hour and a half we heard a mightylarge rattle of muskets, and the Ingians could not stand the soundquietly, but began looking at their rifle flints and fingering theirtomahawks. However, they did not stir, and old Hendrick sat as graveand as brown as an old hemlock stump. Then we saw another party go outof camp to help the first; but in a very few minutes they came runningback with Dieskau at their heels. In they tumbled over the breastworkshead over heels--anyhow; and a pretty little considerable quantity offright brought they with them. If Dieskau had charged straight on thatminute, we should have all been smashed to everlasting flinders, and Idon't doubt no more than that a bear's a critter that Hendrick and hispainted devils would have had as many English scalps as French ones.But the old coon of a Garman halted up short some two hundred yardsoff, and Johnson did not give him much time to look about him, for hepoured all the cannon shot he had got into him as hard as he couldpelt. Well, the French Ingians, and there was a mighty sight of them,did not like that game of ball, and they squattered off to the rightand left, some into the trees and some into the swamps; and I couldstand it no longer, but up with my rifle and give them all I had togive; and old Hendrick, seeing how things were likely to go, took tothe right end, too, but a little too fast, for the old devil came intohim, and he must needs have scalps. So out he went with the rest, andjust as he had got his forefinger in the hair of a young Frenchman,whiz came a bullet into his dirty red skin, and down he went like anold moose. Some twenty of his Ingians got shot, too; but, in the end,Dieskau had to run. Johnson was wounded, too; and them folks havesince said that he had no right to the honor of the battle, but thatit was Lyman, who took the command when he could fight no longer. Butthat's all trash! Dieskau had missed his chance, and all hisirregulars were sent skimming by the first fire long before Johnsonwas hit. Lyman had nothing to do but hold what Johnson left him, andpursue the enemy. The first he did well enough, but the second heforgot to do, though he was a brave man and a good soldier, for allthat."

  This little narrative seemed to give matter for thought both to Mr.Prevost and his English guest, who, after a moment or two of somewhatgloomy consideration, asked the narrator whether the friendly Indianshad on that occasion received any special offence to account for theirunwillingness to give active assistance to their allies, or whethertheir indifference proceeded merely from a fickle or treacherousdisposition.

  "Somewhat of both," replied Captain Brooks; and after leaning hisgreat, broad forehead on his hand for a moment or two in deep thought,he proceeded to give his views of the relations of the colonies withthe Iroquois, in a manner and tone totally different from any he hadused before. They were grave and almost stern; and his language hadfew, if any, of the coarse illustrations with which he ordinarilyseasoned his conversation.

  "They are a queer people, the Indians," he said, "and not so muchsavages as we are inclined to believe them. Sometimes I am ready tothink that in one or two points they are more civilized thanourselves. They have not got our arts and sciences; and as they havegot no books, one set of them cannot store up the knowledge they gainin their own time to be added to by every generation of them thatcomes after; and we all know that things which are sent down frommouth to mouth are soon lost or corrupted. But yet they are alwaysthinking, and they have a calmness and a coolness in their thoughtsthat we white men very often want. They are quick enough in actionwhen once they have determined upon a thing, and for perverseness theybeat all the world; but they take a long time to consider before theydo act, and it is really wonderful how quietly they do consider, andhow steadily they stick in consideration to all their own old notions.We have not treated them well, sir, and we never did. They have bornea great deal, and they will bear more still; but yet they feel andknow it, and some day they may make us feel it, too. They have not thewit to take advantage at present of our divisions, and by joiningtogether themselves make us feel all their power; for they hate eachother worse than they hate us; but if the same spirit were to take thewhole redmen which got hold of the Five Nations many a long year ago,and they were to band together against the whites as those FiveNations did against the other tribes, they'd give us a great deal oftrouble, and though we might thrash them at first, we might teach themto thrash us in the end. As it is, however, you see there are two setsof Indians and two sets of white men in this country, each asdifferent from the other as anything can be. The Indians don't say, asthey ought: The country is ours, and we will fight against all thewhites till we drive them out; but they say: The whites are wiser andstronger than we are, and we will help those of them who are wisestand strongest. I don't mean to say they have not got their likings anddislikings, and that they are not moved by kindness or by being talkedto; for they are great haters and great likers. But still what I havesaid is at the bottom of all their friendships with the white men. TheDutchmen helped the Five Nations, and taught them to believe they werea strong people. So the Five Nations liked the Dutch, and madealliance with them. Then came the English, and proved stronger thanthe Dutch, and the Five Nations attached themselves to the English.They have stuck fast to us for a long time, and would not go from uswithout cause. If they could help to keep us great and powerful theywould, and I don't think a little adversity would make them turn. Butstill to see us whipped and scalped would make them think a good deal;and they won't stay by a people long they don't respect. They have gottheir own notions, too, about faith and want of faith. If you arequite friendly with them--altogether--out and out, they'll hold fastenough to their word with you; but a very little turning, or shaking,or doubting, will make them think themselves free from allengagements, and then take care of your scalp-lock. If I am quite surewhen I meet an Indian, that, as the good book says, 'My heart is rightwith his heart,' that I have never cheated him, or thought of cheatinghim; that I have not doubted him, nor do I doubt him, I can lie downand sleep in his lodge as safe as if I were in the heart of Albany.But I should not sleep a wink if I knew there was the least little bitof insincerity in my own heart; for they are as cute as serpents, andthey are not a people to wait for explanations. Put your wit againsttheirs at the back of the forest, and you'll get the worst of it."

  "But have we cheated or attempted to cheat these poor people?" askedthe stranger.

  "Why, the less we say about that the better, Major," repliedWoodchuck, shaking his head. "They have had to bear a great deal; andnow, when the time comes that we look as if we were going to the wall,perhaps they may remember it."

  "But I hope and trust we are not exactly going to the wall," said theother, with his color somewhat heightened. "There has been a greatdeal said in England about mismanagement of our affairs on thiscontinent; but I have always thought, being no very violent politicianmyself, that party spirit dictated criticisms which were probablyunjust."

  "There has been mismanagement enough, Major," replied Captain Brooks;"hasn't there, Prevost?"

  "I fear so, indeed," replied his host, with a sigh; "but quite as muchon the part of the colonial authorities as on that of the governmentat home."

  "And whose fault is that?" asked the other, somewhat warmly. "Why,that of the government at home, too. Why do they appoint incompetentmen? Why do they appoint
ignorant men? Why do they exclude from everyoffice of honor, profit, trust, or emolument, the good men of theProvinces who know the situation and the wants and the habits of theProvinces, and put over us men who, if they were the best men in theworld, would be inferior, from want of experience, to our own people,but who are nothing more than a set of presuming, ignorant, graspingblood-suckers, who are chosen because they are related to a ministeror a minister's mistress, or perhaps his valet, and whose only objectis to make as much out of us as they can, and then get back again. Ido not say they are all so; but a great many of them are, and that isan insult and an injury to us."

  He spoke evidently with a good deal of heat; but his feelings werethose of a vast multitude of the American colonists, and thosefeelings were preparing the way for a great revolution.

  "Come, come, Woodchuck!" exclaimed Walter Prevost, with a laugh, "youare growing warm; and when you are angry you bite. The Major wants tohear your notions of the state of the English power here, and not yourcensure of the King's government."

  "God bless King George!" cried the other, warmly, "and send him allprosperity. There's not a more loyal man in the land than I am; but itvexes me all the more to see his ministers throwing away his people'shearts and losing his possessions into the bargain. But I'll tell youhow it is, Major--at least how I think it is--and then you'll see. ButI must go back a bit. Here are we, the English, in the middle of thisNorth America; and we have got the French on both sides of us. Well,we have a right to the country all across the continent--and we musthave it, for it is our only safety. But the French don't want us to besafe, and so they are trying to get behind us and push us into thesea. They have been trying it a long time, and we have taken nonotice. They have pushed their posts from Canada right along by theWabash and the Ohio from Lake Erie to the Mississippi, and they havebuilt forts, and won over Ingians, drawing a string round us, whichthey will tighten every day unless we act. And what have the ministersbeen doing all the time? Why, for a long time they did nothing at all.First, the French were suffered boldly to call the country their own,and to carry our traders and trappers and send them into Canada; andnever a word said by our people. Then they built fort after fort, tilltroops can march, and goods can go, with little or no trouble, fromQuebec to New Orleans; and all that this produced was a speech fromGovernor Hamilton and a message from Governor Dinwiddie. The lastindeed sent to England and made representation; but all he got was anorder to repel force by force if he could, but to be quite sure thathe did so on the _undoubted_ territories of King George. Undoubted!Why, the French made the doubt, and then took advantage of it.Dinwiddie, however, had some spirit, and with what help he could get,he began to build a fort himself in the best chosen spot of the wholecountry, just by the meeting of the Ohio and the Monongahela. But hehad only one man to the French ten, and not a regular company amongstthem. So the French marched with a thousand soldiers and plenty ofcannon and stores, turned his people out, took possession of his halffinished fort and completed it themselves. That was not likely to makethe Ingians respect us. Well, then Colonel Washington, the Virginian,and the best man in the land, built Fort Necessity; but they left himwithout forces to defend it, and he was obliged to surrender toVilliers and a force big enough to eat him up. That did not raise uswith our redskins, and a French force never moved without a whole herdof Ingians, supposed to be in friendship with us, but ready to scalpus when we were defeated. Then came Braddock's mad march upon Fort DuQuesne, where he and almost all who were with him were killed by ahandful of Ingians amongst the bushes--fifteen hundred men dispersed,killed and scalped by not four hundred savages--all the artillerytaken and baggage beyond count--think of that! Then Shirley made agreat parade of marching against Fort Niagara, but he turned backalmost as soon as he set out; and had it not been for some good luckon the north side of Massachusetts Bay, and the victory of Johnsonover Dieskau, you would not have had a tribe to hold fast to us. Theywere all wavering as fast as they could. I could see it as plain aspossible from old Hendrick's talk; and the French Jesuits were inamongst them day and night to bring the Five Nations over. This wasthe year afore last. Well, what did they do last year? Nothing at allbut lose Oswego. Lord Loudon and Abercrombie and Webb marched andcountermarched and consulted and played the fool, while Montcalm wasbesieging Mercer, taking Oswego, breaking the terms he had expresslygranted, and suffering his Ingians to scalp and torture his prisonersof war before his eyes. Well, this was just about the middle ofAugust, but it was judged too late to do anything that year, andnothing was done. There was merry work in Albany, and people dancedand sang; but the Ingians got a strange notion that the English lionwas better at roaring than he was at biting. And now, Major, what havewe done this year to make up for the blunders of the last five or six?Why, Lord Loudon stripped the whole of this province of its men andguns to go to Halifax and attack Louisburg. When he got to Halifax heexercised his men for a month, heard a false report that Louisburg wastoo strong and too well prepared to be taken, and sailed back to NewYork. In the meantime, Montcalm took Fort William Henry, on LakeGeorge, and, as usual, let the garrison be butchered by the Ingians.So now the redskins see the English arms contemptible on every part ofthis continent, and the French complete masters of the lakes and thewhole western country. The Five Nations see their Long House open toour enemies on three sides, and not a step taken to give themassistance or protection. We have abandoned them; can you expect themnot to abandon us?"

  The young officer, long before this painful question was asked, hadleaned his elbow on the table and covered his eyes and part of hisface with his hand. Walter and Edith both gazed at him earnestly,while their father bent his eyes gloomily down on the table--all threesympathizing with the feelings of a British officer while listening tosuch a detail. The expression they could not see, but the fine-cut earappearing from beneath the curls of his hair glowed like fire beforethe speaker finished.

  He did not answer, however, for more than a moment; but then raisinghis head, with a look of stern gravity he replied: "I cannot expectit. I cannot even understand how they have remained attached to us solong and so much."

  "The influence of one man has done a great deal," replied Mr. Prevost."Sir William Johnson is what is called the Indian agent, and whatevermay be thought of his military ability, there can be no doubt that theIroquois trust him, and love him more than they have ever trusted orloved a white man before. He is invariably just toward them; he alwayskeeps his word with them; he never yields to importunity, or refusesto listen to reason; and he places that implicit confidence in themwhich enlists everything that is noble in the Indian character in hisfavor. Thus in his presence and in their dealings with him, they arequite a different people from what they are with others--all theirfine qualities are brought into action, and all their wild passionsare stilled."

  "I should like to see them as they really are," said the youngofficer, eagerly; and then, turning to Woodchuck, he said: "You tellme you are going amongst them, my friend. Can you not take me withyou?"

  "Wait three days, and I will," replied the other. "I am first going upthe Mohawk, as I told you, close by Sir William's castle and hall, ashe calls the places. You'd see little there; but if you will promiseto do just as I tell you, and take advice, I'll take you up to SandyHill and the creek, where you'll see enough of them. That will bearter I come back on Friday about noon."

  Mr. Prevost looked at the young officer, and he at his entertainer,and then the former asked: "When will you bring him back, Captain? Hemust be here again by next Tuesday night."

  "That he shall be, with or without his scalp," answered Woodchuck,with a laugh. "You get him ready to go; for you know, Prevost, theforest is not the parade ground."

  "I will lend him my Gakaah and Giseha and Gostoweh," cried Walter. "Wewill make him quite an Indian."

  "No! no!" answered Woodchuck. "That won't do, Walter. The man whotries to please an Ingian by acting like an Ingian, makes nought ofit. They know it's a cheat, and they don't like it.
We have our ways,they have theirs; and let each keep his own, like honest men. So Ithink, and so the Ingians think. Putting on a lion's skin will nevermake a man a lion. Get him some good, tough leggings, and a coat thatwon't tear, a rifle, and an axe, and a wood-knife--a bottle of brandyis no bad thing. But don't forget a calumet and a bunch of tobacco,for both may be needful. So now good-bye t'ye all. I must trot."

  Thus saying, he rose from the table, and without more ceremoniousadieu, left the room.