CHAPTER II.
How skilfully it builds its cell, How neat it spreads the wax, And labors hard to store it well, With the sweet food it makes. WATTS' HYMNS FOR CHILDREN.
The next thing was to ascertain which was the particular tree in whichthe bees had found a shelter. Collecting his implements, le Bourdon wassoon ready, and, with a light elastic tread, he moved off toward thepoint of the wood, followed by the whole party. The distance was abouthalf a mile, and men so much accustomed to use their limbs made lightof it. In a few minutes all were there, and the bee-hunter was busy inlooking for his tree. This was the consummation of the whole process,and Ben was not only provided for the necessities of the case, but hewas well skilled in all the signs that betokened the abodes of bees.
An uninstructed person might have passed that point of wood a thousandtimes, without the least consciousness of the presence of a singleinsect of the sort now searched for. In general, the bees flew too highto be easily perceptible from the ground, though a practised eye candiscern them at distances that would almost seem to be marvellous. ButBen had other assistants than his eyes. He knew that the tree he soughtmust be hollow, and such trees usually give outward signs of the defectthat exists within. Then, some species of wood are more frequentedby the bees than others, while the instinct of the industrious littlecreatures generally enables them to select such homes as will not bevery likely to destroy all the fruits of their industry by an untimelyfall. In all these particulars, both bees and bee-hunter were wellversed, and Ben made his search accordingly.
Among the other implements of his calling, le Bourdon had a smallspy-glass; one scarcely larger than those that are used in theatres,but which was powerful and every way suited to its purposes. Ben wasnot long in selecting a tree, a half-decayed elm, as the one likely tocontain the hive; and by the aid of his glass he soon saw bees flyingamong its dying branches, at a height of not less than seventy feetfrom the ground. A little further search directed his attention to aknot-hole, in and out of which the glass enabled him to see bees passingin streams. This decided the point; and putting aside all his implementsbut the axe, Buzzing Ben now set about the task of felling the tree.
"STRANger," said Gershom, when le Bourdon had taken out the first chip,"perhaps you'd better let ME do that part of the job. I shall expect tocome in for a share of the honey, and I'm willing to 'arn all I take. Iwas brought up on axes, and jack-knives, and sich sort of food, and cancut OR whittle with the best chopper, or the neatest whittler, in or outof New England."
"You can try your hand, if you wish it," said Ben, relinquishing theaxe. "I can fell a tree as well as yourself, but have no such love forthe business as to wish to keep it all to myself."
"Waal, I can say, I LIKE it," answered Gershom, first passing histhumb along the edge of the axe, in order to ascertain its state; thenswinging the tool, with a view to try its "hang."
"I can't say much for your axe, STRANGER, for this helve has no tarveto't, to my mind; but, sich as it is, down must come this elm, thoughten millions of bees should set upon me for my pains."
This was no idle boast of Waring's. Worthless as he was in so manyrespects, he was remarkably skilful with the axe, as he now proved bythe rapid manner in which he severed the trunk of the large elm on whichhe was at work. He inquired of Ben where he should "lay the tree," andwhen it came clattering down, it fell on the precise spot indicated.Great was the confusion among the bees at this sudden downfall of theirlong-cherished home. The fact was not known to their enemy, but they hadinhabited that tree for a long time; and the prize now obtained was therichest he had ever made in his calling. As for the insects, they filledthe air in clouds, and all the invaders deemed it prudent to withdrawto some little distance for a time, lest the irritated and wronged beesshould set upon them and take an ample revenge. Had they known theirpower, this might easily have been done, no ingenuity of man beingable to protect him against the assaults of this insignificant-lookinganimal, when unable to cover himself, and the angry little heroes are inearnest. On the present occasion, however, no harm befell the marauders.So suddenly had the hive tumbled that its late occupants appeared to beastounded, and they submitted to their fate as men yield to the power oftempests and earthquakes. In half an hour most of them were collected onan adjacent tree, where doubtless a consultation on the mode of futureproceedings was held, after their fashion.
The Indians were more delighted with le Bourdon's ingenious mode ofdiscovering the hive than with the richness of the prize; while Benhimself, and Gershom, manifested most satisfaction at the amount of theearnings. When the tree was cut in pieces, and split, it was ascertainedthat years of sweets were contained within its capacious cavities, andBen estimated the portion that fell to his share at more than threehundred pounds of good honey--comb included--after deducting theportions that were given to the Indians, and which were abstracted byGershom. The three last, however, could carry but little, as they had noother means of bearing it away than their own backs.
The honey was not collected that night. The day was too far advanced forthat; and le Bourdon--certainly never was name less merited than thissobriquet as applied to the active young bee-hunter--but le Bourdon, togive him his quaint appellation, offered the hospitalities of his owncabin to the strangers, promising to put them on their several paths thesucceeding day, with a good store of honey in each knapsack.
"They do say there ar' likely to be troublesome times." he continued,with simple earnestness, after having given the invitation to partakeof his homely fare; "and I should like to hear what is going on in theworld. From Whiskey Centre I do not expect to learn much, I will own;but I am mistaken if the Pigeonswing, here, has not a message that willmake us all open our ears."
The Indians ejaculated their assent; but Gershom was a man who could notexpress anything sententiously. As the bee-hunter led the way towardhis cabin, or shanty, he made his comments with his customary freedom.Before recording what he communicated, however, we shall digress for onemoment in order to say a word ourselves concerning this term "shanty."It is now in general use throughout the whole of the United States,meaning a cabin that has been constructed in haste, and for temporarypurposes. By a license of speech, it is occasionally applied to morepermanent residences, as men are known to apply familiar epithetsto familiar objects. The derivation of the word has caused somespeculation. The term certainly came from the West-perhaps from theNorthwest-and the best explanation we have ever heard of its derivationis to sup-pose "shanty," as we now spell it, a corruption of "chiente,"which it is thought may have been a word in Canadian French phrase toexpress a "dog-kennel." "Chenil," we believe, is the true Frenchterm for such a thing, and our own word is said to be derived fromit--"meute" meaning "a kennel of dogs," or "a pack of hounds," ratherthan their dwelling. At any rate, "chiente" is so plausible a solutionof the difficulty, that one may hope it is the true one, even thoughhe has no better authority for it than a very vague rumor. Curiousdiscoveries are sometimes made by these rude analogies, however, thoughthey are generally thought not to be very near akin to learning. Forourselves, now, we do not entertain a doubt that the sobriquet of"Yankees" which is in every man's mouth, and of which the derivationappears to puzzle all our philologists, is nothing but a slightcorruption of the word "Yengeese," the term applied to the "English," bythe tribes to whom they first became known. We have no other authorityfor this derivation than conjecture, and conjectures that are purelyour own; but it is so very plausible as almost to carry conviction ofitself. [Footnote: Since writing the above, the author has met with anallusion that has induced him to think he may not have been the firstto suggest this derivation of the word "Yankee." With himself, thesuggestion is perfectly original, and has long since been published byhim; but nothing is more probable than the fact that a solution so verynatural, of this long-disputed question in language, may have suggesteditself to various minds.]
The "chiente'" or shanty of le Bourdon stood quite
near to the banks ofthe Kalamazoo, and in a most beautiful grove of the burr-oak. Ben hadselected the site with much taste, though the proximity of a spring ofdelicious water had probably its full share in influencing his decision.It was necessary, moreover, that he should be near the river, ashis great movements were all made by water, for the convenience oftransporting his tools, furniture, etc., as well as his honey. A famousbark canoe lay in a little bay, out of the current of the stream,securely moored, head and stern, in order to prevent her beating againstany object harder than herself.
The dwelling had been constructed with some attention to security. Thiswas rendered necessary, in some measure, as Ben had found by experience,on account of two classes of enemies--men and bears. From the first, itis true, the bee-hunter had hitherto apprehended but little. There werefew human beings in that region. The northern portions of the noblepeninsula of Michigan are some-what low and swampy, or are too brokenand savage to tempt the native hunters from the openings and prairiesthat then lay, in such rich profusion, further south and west. With theexception of the shores, or coasts, it was seldom that the northernhalf of the peninsula felt the footstep of man. With the southernhalf, however, it was very different; the "openings," and glades, andwatercourses, offering almost as many temptations to the savage as theyhave since done to the civilized man. Nevertheless, the bison, orthe buffalo, as the animal is erroneously, but very generally, termedthroughout the country, was not often found in the vast herds of whichwe read, until one reached the great prairies west of the Mississippi.There it was that the red men most loved to congregate; though alwaysbearing, in numbers, but a trifling proportion to the surface theyoccupied. In that day, however, near as to the date, but distant as tothe events, the Chippewas, Ottawas, Pottawattamies, kindred tribes, webelieve, had still a footing in Michigan proper, and were to be foundin considerable numbers in what was called the St. Joseph's country, oralong the banks of the stream of that name; a region that almost meritsthe lofty appellation of the garden of America. Le Bourdon knew many oftheir warriors, and was much esteemed among them; though he had nevermet with either of those whom chance now had thrown in his way. Ingeneral, he suffered little wrong from the red men, who wondered at hisoccupation, while they liked his character; but he had sustained losses,and even ill-treatment, from certain outcasts of the tribes, as well asfrom vagrant whites, who occasionally found their way to his temporarydwellings. On the present occasion, le Bourdon felt far more uneasinessfrom the circumstance of having his abode known to Gershom Waring, acountryman and fellow-Christian, in one sense at least, than from itsbeing known to the Chippewa and the Pottawattamie.
The bears were constant and dangerous sources of annoyance to thebee-hunter. It was not often that an armed man--and le Bourdon seldommoved without his rifle--has much to apprehend from the common brownbear of America. Though a formidable-looking animal, especially whenfull grown, it is seldom bold enough to attack a human being, nothingbut hunger, or care for its young, ever inducing it to go so much outof the ordinary track of its habits. But the love of the bear for honeyamounts to a passion. Not only will it devise all sorts of bearishexpedients to get at the sweet morsels, but it will scent them fromafar. On one occasion, a family of Bruins had looked into a shanty ofBen's, that was not constructed with sufficient care, and consummatedtheir burglary by demolishing the last comb. That disaster almost ruinedthe adventurer, then quite young in his calling; and ever since itsoccurrence he had taken the precaution to build such a citadel as shouldat least set teeth and paws at defiance. To one who had an axe, withaccess to young pines, this was not a difficult task, as was proved bythe present habitation of our hero.
This was the second season that le Bourdon had occupied "Castle Meal,"as he himself called the shanty. This appellation was a corruption of"chateau au Mtel" a name given to it by a wag of a voyageur who hadaided Ben in ascending the Kalamazoo the previous summer, and hadremained long enough with him to help him put up his habitation. Thebuilding was just twelve feet square, in the interior, and somewhat lessthan fourteen on its exterior. It was made of pine logs, in the usualmode, with the additional security of possessing a roof of squaredtimbers of which the several parts were so nicely fitted together as toshed rain. This unusual precaution was rendered necessary to protect thehoney, since the bears would have unroofed the common bark coveringsof the shanties, with the readiness of human beings, in order to get atstores as ample as those which the bee-hunter had soon collected beneathhis roof. There was one window of glass, which le Bourdon had brought inhis canoe; though it was a single sash of six small lights, that openedon hinges; the exterior being protected by stout bars of riven oak,securely let into the logs. The door was made of three thicknesses ofoaken plank, pinned well together, and swinging on stout iron hinges, sosecured as not to be easily removed. Its outside fastening was made bymeans of two stout staples, a short piece of ox-chain, and an unusuallyheavy padlock. Nothing short of an iron bar, and that cleverly applied,could force this fastening. On the inside, three bars of oak renderedall secure, when the master was at home.
"You set consid'rable store by your honey, I guess, STRANger," saidGershom, as le Bourdon unlocked the fastenings and removed the chain,"if a body may judge by the kear (care) you take on't! Now, down our waywe ain't half so partic'lar; Dolly and Blossom never so much as puttingup a bar to the door, even when I sleep out, which is about half thetime, now the summer is fairly set in."
"And whereabouts is 'down our way,' if one may be so bold as to ask thequestion?" returned le Bourdon, holding the door half-opened, while heturned his face toward the other, in expectation of the answer.
"Why, down at Whiskey Centre, to be sure, as the v'y'gerers and otherboatmen call the place."
"And where is Whiskey Centre?" demanded Ben, a little pertinaciously.
"Why, I thought everybody would 'a' known that," answered Greshom; "sin'whiskey is as drawin' as a blister. Whiskey Centre is just where _I_happen to live; bein' what a body may call a travellin' name. As I'm nowdown at the mouth of the Kalamazoo, why Whiskey Centre's there, too."
"I understand the matter, now," answered le Bourdon, composing hiswell-formed mouth in a sort of contemptuous smile. "You and whiskey,being sworn friends, are always to be found in company. When I came intothe river, which was the last week in April, I saw nothing like whiskey,nor anything like a Centre at the mouth."
"If you'd 'a' be'n a fortnight later, STRANger, you'd 'a' found both.Travellin' Centres, and stationary, differs somewhat, I guess; one isalways to be found, while t'other must be s'arched a'ter."
"And pray who are Dolly and Blossom; I hope the last is not a WHISKEYblossom?"
"Not she--she never touches a spoonful, though I tell her it never hurtmortal! She tries hard to reason me into it that it hurts ME--but that'sall a mistake, as anybody can see that jest looks at me."
Ben DID look at him; and, to say truth, came to a somewhat differentconclusion.
"Is she so blooming that you call her 'Blossom'?" demanded thebee-hunter, "or is she so young?"
"The gal's a little of both. Dolly is my wife, and Blossom is my sister.The real name of Blossom is Margery Waring, but everybody calls herBlossom; and so I gi'n into it, with the rest on 'em."
It is probable that le Bourdon lost a good deal of his interest inthis flower of the wilderness, as soon as he learned she was so nearlyrelated to the Whiskey Centre. Gershom was so very uninviting an object,and had so many palpable marks, that he had fairly earned the nicknamewhich, as it afterward appeared, the western adventurers had givenHIM, as well as his ABODE, wherever the last might be, that no one ofdecently sober habits could readily fancy anything belonging to him. Atany rate, the bee-hunter now led the way into his cabin, whither he wasfollowed without unnecessary ceremony, by all three of his guests.
The interior of the "chiente," to use the most poetical, if not the mostaccurate word, was singularly clean for an establishment set up bya bachelor, in so remote a part of the world. The honey, in n
eat,well-constructed kegs, was carefully piled along one side of theapartment, in a way to occupy the minimum of room, and to be ratherornamental than unsightly. These kegs were made by le Bourdon himself,who had acquired as much of the art as was necessary to that object.The woods always furnished the materials; and a pile of staves that wasplaced beneath a neighboring tree sufficiently denoted that he did notyet deem that portion of his task completed.
In one corner of the hut was a pile of well-dressed bearskins, threein number, each and all of which had been taken from the carcasses offallen foes, within the last two months. Three more were stretched onsaplings, near by, in the process of curing. It was a material partof the bee-hunter's craft to kill this animal, in particular; and thetrophies of his conflicts with them were proportionably numerous. On thepile already prepared, he usually slept.
There was a very rude table, a single board set up on sticks; and abench or two, together with a wooden chest of some size, completed thefurniture. Tools were suspended from the walls, it is true; and noless than three rifles, in addition to a very neat double-barrelled"shot-gun," or fowling-piece, were standing in a corner. These were armscollected by our hero in his different trips, and retained quite as muchfrom affection as from necessity, or caution. Of ammunition, there wasno very great amount visible; only three or four horns and a couple ofpouches being suspended from pegs: but Ben had a secret store, as wellas another rifle, carefully secured, in a natural magazine and arsenal,at a distance sufficiently great from the chiente to remove it from alldanger of sharing in the fortunes of his citadel, should disaster befallthe last.
The cooking was done altogether out of doors. For this essentialcomfort, le Bourdon had made very liberal provision. He had a smalloven, a sufficiently convenient fire-place, and a storehouse, at hand;all placed near the spring, and beneath the shade of a magnificent elm.In the storehouse he kept his barrel of flour, his barrel of salt,a stock of smoked or dried meat, and that which the woodsman, ifaccustomed in early life to the settlements, prizes most highly, ahalf-barrel of pickled pork. The bark canoe had sufficed to transportall these stores, merely ballasting handsomely that ticklish craft; andits owner relied on the honey to perform the same office on the returnvoyage, when trade or consumption should have disposed of the variousarticles just named.
The reader may smile at the word "trade," and ask where were those tobe found who could be parties to the traffic. The vast lakes andinnumerable rivers of that region, however, remote as it then wasfrom the ordinary abodes of civilized man, offered facilities forcommunication that the active spirit of trade would be certain not toneglect. In the first place, there were always the Indians to barterskins and furs against powder, lead, rifles, blankets, and unhappily"fire-water." Then, the white men who penetrated to those semi-wildswere always ready to "dicker" and to "swap," and to "trade" rifles, andwatches, and whatever else they might happen to possess, almost to theirwives and Children.
But we should be doing injustice to le Bourdon, were we in any mannerto confound him with the "dickering" race. He was a bee-hunter quite asmuch through love of the wilderness and love of adventure, as throughlove of gain. Profitable he had certainly found the employment, or heprobably would not have pursued it; but there was many a man who--nay,most men, even in his own humble class in life-would have deemed hisliberal earnings too hardly obtained, when gained at the expense of allintercourse with their own kind. But Buzzing Ben loved the solitude ofhis situation, its hazards, its quietude, relieved by passing momentsof high excitement; and, most of all, the self-reliance that wasindispensable equally to his success and his happiness. Woman, as yet,had never exercised her witchery over him, and every day was his passionfor dwelling alone, and for enjoying the strange, but certainly mostalluring, pleasures of the woods, increasing and gaining strength in hisbosom. It was seldom, now, that he held intercourse even with the Indiantribes that dwelt near his occasional places of hunting; and frequentlyhad he shifted his ground in order to avoid collision, however friendly,with whites who, like himself, were pushing their humble fortunes alongthe shores of those inland seas, which, as yet, were rarely indeedwhitened by a sail. In this respect, Boden and Waring were the veryantipodes of each other; Gershom being an inveterate gossip, in despiteof his attachment to a vagrant and border life.
The duties of hospitality are rarely forgotten among border men. Theinhabitant of a town may lose his natural disposition to receive allwho offer at his board, under the pressure of society; but it is only inmost extraordinary exceptions that the frontier man is ever known tobe inhospitable. He has little to offer, but that little is seldomwithheld, either through prudence or niggardliness. Under thisfeeling--we might call it habit also--le Bourdon now set himself at workto place on the table such food as he had at command and ready cooked.The meal which he soon pressed his guests to share with him was composedof a good piece of cold boiled pork, which Ben had luckily cooked theday previously, some bear's meat roasted, a fragment of venison steak,both lean and cold, and the remains of a duck that had been shot theday before, in the Kalamazoo, with bread, salt, and, what was somewhatunusual in the wilderness, two or three onions, raw. The last dish washighly relished by Gershom, and was slightly honored by Ben; but theIndians passed it over with cold indifference. The dessert consisted ofbread and honey, which were liberally partaken of by all at table.
Little was said by either host or guests, until the supper was finished,when the whole party left the chiente, to enjoy their pipes in the coolevening air, beneath the oaks of the grove in which the dwelling stood.Their conversation began to let the parties know something of eachother's movements and characters.
"YOU are a Pottawattamie, and YOU a Chippewa," said le Bourdon, as hecourteously handed to his two red guests pipes of theirs, that he hadjust stuffed with some of his own tobacco--"I believe you are a sort ofcousins, though your tribes are called by different names."
"Nation, Ojebway," returned the elder Indian, holding up a finger, byway of enforcing attention.
"Tribe, Pottawattamie," added the runner, in the same sententiousmanner.
"Baccy, good"--put in the senior, by way of showing he was wellcontented with his comforts.
"Have you nothin' to drink?" demanded Whiskey Centre, who saw no greatmerit in anything but "firewater."
"There is the spring," returned le Bourdon, gravely; "a gourd hangsagainst the tree."
Gershom made a wry face, but he did not move.
"Is there any news stirring among the tribes?" asked the bee-hunter,waiting, however, a decent interval, lest he might be supposed to betraya womanly curiosity.
Elksfoot puffed away some time before he saw fit to answer, reserving asalvo in behalf of his own dignity. Then he removed the pipe, shook offthe ashes, pressed down the fire a little, gave a reviving draught ortwo, and quietly replied:
"Ask my young brother--he runner--he know."
But Pigeonswing seemed to be little more communicative than thePottawattamie. He smoked on in quiet dignity, while the bee-hunterpatiently waited for the moment when it might suit his younger guest tospeak. That moment did not arrive for some time, though it came at last.Almost five minutes after Elksfoot had made the allusion mentioned, theOjebway, or Chippewa, removed his pipe also, and looking courteouslyround at his host, he said with emphasis:
"Bad summer come soon. Pale-faces call young men togedder, and dig uphatchet."
"I had heard something of this," answered le Bourdon, with a saddenedcountenance, "and was afraid it might happen."
"My brother dig up hatchet too, eh?" demanded Pigeonswing.
"Why should I? I am alone here, on the Openings, and it would seemfoolish in me to wish to fight."
"Got no tribe--no Ojebway--no Pottawattamie, eh?"
"I have my tribe, as well as another, Chippewa, but can see no use I canbe to it, here. If the English and Americans fight, it must be a longway from this wilderness, and on or near the great salt lake."
"Don't know--nebber know, 'till
see. English warrior plenty in Canada."
"That may be; but American warriors are not plenty here. This country isa wilderness, and there are no soldiers hereabouts, to cut each other'sthroats."
"What you t'ink him?" asked Pigeonswing, glancing at Gershom; who,unable to forbear any longer, had gone to the spring to mix a cup froma small supply that still remained of the liquor with which he had lefthome. "Got pretty good scalp?"
"I suppose it is as good as another's--but he and I are countrymen, andwe cannot raise the tomahawk on one another."
"Don't t'ink so. Plenty Yankee, him!"
Le Bourdon smiled at this proof of Pigeonswings sagacity, though he felta good deal of uneasiness at the purport of his discourse.
"You are right enough in THAT" he answered, "but I'm plenty of Yankee,too."
"No, don't say so," returned the Chippewa--"no, mustn't say DAT.English; no Yankee. HIM not a bit like you."
"Why, we are unlike each other, in some respects, it is true, though weare countrymen, notwithstanding. My great father lives at Washington, aswell as his."
The Chippewa appeared to be disappointed; perhaps he appeared sorry,too; for le Bourdon's frank and manly hospitality had disposed him tofriendship instead of hostilities, while his admissions would rather puthim in an antagonist position. It was probably with a kind motive thathe pursued the discourse in a way to give his host some insight into thetrue condition of matters in that part of the world.
"Plenty Breetish in woods," he said, with marked deliberation and point."Yankee no come yet."
"Let me know the truth, at once, Chippewa," exclaimed le Bourdon. "I ambut a peaceable bee-hunter, as you see, and wish no man's scalp, or anyman's honey but my own. Is there to be a war between America and Canada,or not?"
"Some say, yes; some say, no," returned Pigeonswing, evasively, "Mypart, don't know. Go, now, to see. But plenty Montreal belt amongredskins; plenty rifle; plenty powder, too."
"I heard something of this as I came up the lakes," rejoined Ben; "andfell in with a trader, an old acquaintance, from Canada, and a goodfriend, too, though he is to be my enemy, according to law, who gave meto understand that the summer would not go over without blows. Still,they all seemed to be asleep at Mackinaw (Michilimackinac) as I passedthere."
"Wake up pretty soon. Canada warrior take fort."
"If I thought that, Chippewa, I would be off this blessed night to givethe alarm."
"No--t'ink better of dat."
"Go I would, if I died for it the next hour!"
"T'ink better--be no such fool, I tell you."
"And I tell you, Pigeonswing, that go I would, if the whole Ojebwaynation was on my trail. I am an American, and mean to stand by my ownpeople, come what will."
"T'ought you only peaceable bee-hunter, just now," retorted theChippewa, a little sarcastically.
By this time le Bourdon had somewhat cooled, and he became conscious ofhis indiscretion. He knew enough of the history of the past, to be fullyaware that, in all periods of American history, the English, and, forthat matter, the French too, so long as they had possessions onthis continent, never scrupled about employing the savages in theirconflicts. It is true, that these highly polished, and, we may justlyadd, humane nations--(for each is, out of all question, entitled to thatcharacter in the scale of comparative humanity as between communities,and each if you will take its own account of the matter, stands at thehead of civilization in this respect)--would, notwithstanding these highclaims, carry on their AMERICAN wars by the agency of the tomahawk, thescalping-knife, and the brand. Eulogies, though pronounced by ourselveson ourselves, cannot erase the stains of blood. Even down to the presenthour, a cloud does not obscure the political atmosphere between Englandand America, that its existence may not be discovered on the prairies,by a movement among the In-dians. The pulse that is to be felt thereis a sure indication of the state of the relations between the parties.Every one knows that the savage, in his warfare, slays both sexes andall ages; that the door-post of the frontier cabin is defiled by theblood of the infant, whose brains have been dashed against it; and thatthe smouldering ruins of log-houses oftener than not cover the remainsof their tenants. But what of all that? Brutus is still "an honorableman," and the American, who has not this sin to answer for among hisnumberless transgressions, is reviled as a semi-barbarian! The time isat hand, when the Lion of the West will draw his own picture, too; andfortunate will it be for the characters of some who will gather aroundthe easel, if they do not discover traces of their own lineaments amonghis labors.
The feeling engendered by the character of such a warfare is the secretof the deeply seated hostility which pervades the breast of the WESTERNAmerican against the land of his ancestors. He never sees the Times, andcares not a rush for the mystifications of the Quarterly Review; buthe remembers where his mother was brained, and his father or brothertortured; aye, and by whose instrumentality the foul deeds were mainlydone. The man of the world can understand that such atrocities may becommitted, and the people of the offending nation remain ignorant oftheir existence, and, in a measure, innocent of the guilt; but thesufferer, in his provincial practice, makes no such distinction,confounding all alike in his resentments, and including all that bearthe hated name in his maledictions. It is a fearful thing to awaken theanger of a nation; to excite in it a desire for revenge; and thriceis that danger magnified, when the people thus aroused possessthe activity, the resources, the spirit, and the enterprise of theAmericans. We have been openly derided, and that recently, because,in the fulness of our sense of power and sense of right, language thatexceeds any direct exhibition of the national strength has escapedthe lips of legislators, and, perhaps justly, has exposed them to theimputation of boastfulness. That derision, however, will not soon berepeated. The scenes enacting in Mexico, faint as they are in comparisonwith what would have been seen, had hostilities taken an otherdirection, place a perpetual gag in the mouths of all scoffers. Thechild is passing from the gristle into the bone, and the next generationwill not even laugh, as does the present, at any idle and ill-consideredmenaces to coerce this republic; strong in the consciousness of its ownpower, it will eat all such fanfaronades, if any future statesman shouldbe so ill-advised as to renew them, with silent indifference.
Now, le Bourdon was fully aware that one of the surest pulses ofapproaching hostilities between England and America was to be felt inthe far West. If the Indians were in movement, some power was probablybehind the scenes to set them in motion. Pigeonswing was well known tohim by reputation; and there was that about the man which awakened themost unpleasant apprehensions, and he felt an itching desire to learnall he could from him, without betraying any more of his own feelings,if that were possible.
"I do not think the British will attempt Mackinaw," Ben remarked, aftera long pause and a good deal of smoking had enabled him to assume an airof safe indifference.
"Got him, I tell you," answered Pigeonswing, pointedly.
"Got what, Chippewa?"
"Him--Mac-naw--got fort--got so'gers--got whole island. Know dat, forbeen dere."
This was astounding news, indeed! The commanding officer of thatill-starred garrison could not himself have been more astonished, whenhe was unexpectedly summoned to surrender by an enemy who appearedto start out of the earth, than was le Bourdon, at hearing thisintelligence. To western notions, Michilimackinac was another Gibraltar,although really a place of very little strength, and garrisoned by onlyone small company of regulars. Still, habit had given the fortress asort of sanctity among the adventurers of that region; and its fall,even in the settled parts of the country, sounded like the loss ofa province. It is now known that, anticipating the movements of theAmericans, some three hundred whites, sustained by more than twice thatnumber of Indians, including warriors from nearly every adjacent tribe,had surprised the post on the 17th of July, and compelled the subalternin command, with some fifty odd men, to surrender. This rapid and highlymilitary measure, on the part of the British, com
pletely cut off thepost of Chicago, at the head of Lake Michigan, leaving it isolated, onwhat was then a very remote wilderness. Chicago, Mackinac, and Detroit,were the three grand stations of the Americans on the upper lakes, andhere were two of them virtually gone at a blow!
Oak Openings Page 3
