DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY DURHAM, N. C. Rec'd. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/truestoriesofour01maso EMINENT AMERICAN HISTORIANS (THE AUTHORS OF THIS BOOK) TRUE STORIES OF OUR PIONEERS THE HEROIC DEEDS AND DEVOTED LIVES OF THE FATHERS AND MOTHERS OF AMERICA EMBRACING THE PRINCIPAL EPISODES IN THE STRUGGLE OF THE WHITE RACE WITH THE RED MEX FOR THE P0SSESSI0:N OF THE NEW WORLD A TRUE AND VIVID ACCOUNT OF THE DARK CAPTIVITIES AND THE UNCONQUERABLE COURAGE OF THE MEN AND WOMEN VTHO WRESTED THE AMERICAN FORESTS FROM THE ABORIGINES AND GAVE THEM TO THE PLOW AND THE SICKLE BY AUGUSTUS LYNCH MASON, LL.D. DEAN OF THE LAW SCHOOL OF DE PAUW U>TrVERSITY WITH IXTRODUCTIOX AXD SPECIAL COXTEIBUTIOXS BY JOHN CLARK EIDPATH, LL.D. AUTHOH or "A CYCL0P.5:DIA of rrSTVERSAL HISTORY," "THE GREAT BACZS Or MA>'KrN-D." '-HISTORY OF THE ITNITED STATES." ETC. AND WITH ADDITIONAL CHAPTERS ON THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. THE GREAT NORTHWEST, THE PANAMA CANAL AND THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION BY TRUMBULL WHITE AUTHOR OF "OUR WONDERFUL PROGRESS." '•MARTrSTIQUE A>T) THE WOBLD'S GBKAT MSASTEBS," '•OUR NEW POSSESSIONS," ETC. HAMPDEN PUBLISHING COMPANY, SPRINGFIELD, MASS. OOP¥BIGHT tm BY B. A. MERBIAM. P%EFcACE. IVILIZATIOX is a war— a war of light witli dar^K- ness; of truth with falsehood; of the illuminated intellect and the rectified heart with the barbarism of ignorance and the animalism of the savage. The present work portrays a single phase of this sublime conflict. It recounts one of the thousand campaigns of this >rar. It is an attempt to condense into a single volume, and give an adequate literary expression to, the thrilling history of the struggle between the White man and the Eed man for the possession of this continent. It is also intended to be a memorial to a race of heroes. Other countries have esteemed their earliest heroes as worthy of the song of the poet and the 23raise of the historian. AVith us the deeds of our fathers are as vet unsuno^, and their verv names are fadino: fi^om our memory. The author has aimed to make this book not only historical, but realistic. It is a truthful account of actual events, gathered from a vast mass of authorities. Yet the design has been pic- torial rather than o-eometrical. The author has souo-ht rather to paint a picture than to make a majD. In the execution of this purpose he has been nobly seconded by the Publishers, who have spared neither trouble nor expense to procure for 8 PREFACE. him rare and valuable authorities. The large collections of the public libraries of the country were found inadequate, and booksellers from Boston to San Antonio have been called upon for books difficult of access. To the vast number of painstaking and truthful writers from whom the author has thus drawn his facts, and perchance even the ex23ression of them, an obligation exists for which no adequate return can be made. The author also takes this opportunity to express his deep obligations to Professok JoHi^ Claek Ridpath, the eminent historian, to whose generous aid he is indebted for suggestions, as well as for additions to the narrative. A similar recognition is due to Hon. Henry A. Rattermann, whose unequaled library of rare books on American Pioneer History — especially that part relating to the settlement of the Ohio Valley, — has furnished valuable data for this volume, without which much that is interesting would have been lost to these pages. The liberality of the ^Publishers has extended not merely to the procurement of literary materials, but has also enriched the book with a collection of artistic engravings in every way worthy of the topic. Supplemented as his own efforts have been by these powerful and generous aids, it is not without confidence that the work is submitted to the public. A. L. M. Deer Park, Maryland. PUBLISHERS' PREFACE This book is presented to rill a long felt want on the part of the public, for what may be called 'Tioneer History." Its educational (pialities are instantly recognized by all readers who seek definite information and facts concerning the early settlement and first development of America. It is intended to serve and does serve all readers with that important part of American history not found in the numerous Histories of the United States. The question arises, ''Who Avere the mothers and fathers of America?" Generally, they were small bodies of men and women, of sturdy and resolute char- acter and sterling qualities. This volume tells you who they Avere and what part of our great country they orig- inally settled, what they had to contend with —in many cases sacrificed their lives for the true principles in- volved. To the teacher or student, this volume will teach American history and perhaps the most important part of American history, and furthermore that part which is not to be found elsewhere. To the parents its great value cannot be estimated. It paints for their children, character, courage, resolute endurance and firmness of mind. The stories are thrilling, yet true, and intensely interesting. It cultivates a desire for a closer acquaint- PUBLISHERS' PREFACE ance with these men and women of the noblest and grandest period of pioneer history. It is a storehouse of essential information to young or old in any vocation of life. To the foregoing facts must be added a mention of the illustrations. These were drawn and engraved on wood at an enormous expense. There never were any photograplis of these scenes from which to make half tone or photographic pictures. Each one of these rare and renowned illustrations tells a story in itself. They make a lasting impression on the reader. We are proud to be able to present this excellent volume to all readers. THE PUBLISHERS. CHAPTER I. THE LEGEND OF POWHATAN. ' Captain John Smith — His adventures in Turkey — Three single combats and as many victories— Prisoner of a princess — Her suspicious brother — Escape — The Jamestown Colony— Smith, sticking in a quagmire, is captured by Indians— Poca- hontas, the king's daughter — She saves Smith's life and makes a pet of him — Follies of the colony — Coronation of Powhatan — Smith's fight with the big Indian — Starvation — A meal of powdered wife — Betrayal and capture of Pocahontas — Rolfe in love — The marriage and death of the Indian princess — Smith's hobbies — He dies neglected and in want Pages 33-81 CHAPTER II. THE TRIALS OF LA SALLE. The greatest French explorer — His saint-like predecessor, Marquette — A grave " in a wilderness — La Salle's ambition — Life in the fort — Building The Griffin — Up the lakes — Loss of Tlie Ghnffin — La Salle journeys on foot from the Ilinois to Mon- treal — Bankruptcy and ruin — Tonty's six gifts, and their significance — The second attempt — Down the Mississippi — The fort on "Starved Rock" — The simpleton of Versailles — French reenforcements — Four vessels set sail from France for the Delta of the Mississippi — Shipwreck of them all — Lost in a Texan wilderness — Suffering and treachery — La Salle attempts to reach the Illinois — His assassina- tion Pages 82-123 CHAPTER III. ROGERS' RANGERS. Captain Rogers — His fierce scouts — Their exploits on Lake George — English scalps worth sixty francs — The Rangers on skates give chase to nine sleds on the ice — A fearful race— The triumph of men over brutes — Fort William Henry — 9 10 com E NTS. A debauch on Saint Patrick's Eve— Saved by the Kangers— Burning of the fort— An awful battle— Two-thirds of the Rangers killed— Rogers' leap— Lost in a wilder- ness of snow — An insane guide — The St. Francis expedition — A two hundred mile march— An Indian wedding feast— Destruction of the village Pages 126-149 - CHAPTER IV. THE AMBITION OF PONTIAC. The mighty chieftain of the Ottawas — The conspiracy — Council of infernal peers — The plot at Detroit — Warned by an Indian girl — Guns hidden under blan- kets — Foiled — Presque Isle — An Indian mine — Fire and sword — Surrender of the haggard garrison — Michillimackinac — The game of ball — Success of the stratagem- Butchery of the garrison — The trader Henry's adventures — Hidden in a garret — Discovered — A friend in need — Carried away — The siege of Detroit — A vast fire- ship — A midnight sally — Attacked in a ravine — Bloody defeat — The fight around Campan's house — Retreat of the survivors — Boquet's expedition — The circular fight— "W reck of the Lake Erie expedition — The Paxton boys — A panic in Phila- delphia — Peace — Pontiac's death Pages 150-209 CHAPTER V. JOSEPH BRANT AND THE MOHAWKS. An American castle — A symmetrical maiden — Sir William JohnsoQ — The Five Nations — A terrible wrestling match — Conquests of the Iroquois — The Revolu- tion — Brant and the English landlord — A gay rider in the dust — Old Fort Schuyler — A faithful dog — The siege — Battle in the swamp — Brant's cruelties — Massacre of three hundred whites — Invasion of the Indian country — An ear of corn twenty-two inches long — Burning of Ellis's mills — An amour of a Dutch trader — Brant in old age , , , Pages 210-266^ CHAPTER VI. THE CONFLICT IN THE OHIO VALLEY. Transformation — The escape of McConnel — Capture — Sleeping in bonds — The knife — Killing his captors — A race for life — A fight in a fog — Old Morgan's strength — Biting off a finger — An American Meg Merrilles— The black horse — Through the wilderness — The great fight of Poe and Big Foot — Five Kentucky boys and their pluck — Drawing the claret — The boys kill their keepers and escape — A strange story — The first Chickamauga — The attack on Widow Scraggs's cabin — "Keep the door shut!" — Driven out by the flames — Mrs. Merrill's bravery — The sufferings of Massy Harbison — One hundred and fifty thorns in her feet and legs — The blood avenger — The wizard's punishment Pages 267-318 CONTENTS. 11 CHAPTER VII. THE COURAGE OF KENTON. Simon Kenton — The tortures of love — Flight to the wilderness — Stealing horses from the Indians — Unable to ford the Ohio — Captured and whipped — Eight times exposed to the gauntlet — Three times tied to the stake — The burning-glass story — Old age and disappointment Pages 320-334 CHAPTER VIII. BRADY THE BACKWOODSMAN. Father and son — A rum experience — Talking by the roadside — Three rifle- shots — Scalped — Sam Brady — A dull Dutchman — Touching elbows — Brady's Leap Pages 335-344 CHAPTER IX. THE DAYS OF DANIEL BOONE. Westward, ho! — A ruined cabin — Devoured by wolves — A flask of whisky — Thirsty squaws — Boone's family — Capture of the girls — The rescuing party— An uplifted tomahawk — Haggard with hunger — Siege of Boonesborough — Tracked by a bloodhound — Boone swallows a butcher-knife — Frightened women — Bringing in the water — The terrible battle of Blue Licks — Later years Pages 345-369 CHAPTER X. THE CRUELTIES OF GIRTY. The renegade — Frightening the Moravians — The beautiful Katy Malott — The attack on Dunlap's Station — Relief party from Cincinnati — Blind, drunken, and wretched Pages 370-381 CHAPTER XI. THE DOOM OF CRAWFORD. The Sandusky expedition — The army on the march — A bad omen — A deserted village — Indian spies — The enemy in sight — The first day's battle — A hat for a water-bucket — The second day — The attack at nightfall — Rout of the whites in the grove — The fatal cranberry marsh — The retreat — Shot on the river bank — The poisoned kettle — A Russian noble — Slover and Paull — Painted black — The Gaunt- let — Tossed to the dogs —Sentenced to be burned alive — Interruption by a thunder- storm — Miraculous escape — Naked and bleeding — Seventy-five miles in eleven hours — Dr. Knight — The foolish Tutelu — His lies — William Crawford — Stake and flames — "For God's sake, shoot me through the heart!" — The spirit released Pages 382-420 12 CONTENTS. ' CHAPTER XII. THE ROMANCE OF RED EAGLE. The Emperor Alexander — Red Eagle as a boy — A rich man's home — The idol of the people — Tecumseh — A false prophet — Red Eagle's sweetheart — Love and War — The massacre of Fort Mims — Card playing and drinking among the garrison — The growing sand-heap — The attack — The hopeless defense — "To the bastion!" — Red Eagle's nobility — Searching the heaps of corpses — The dog charge — Jackson's cam- paigns — Dale's famous canoe fight — Mutinies — The battle of the Horseshoe — Sur- render of Red Eagle Pages 421-450 CHAPTER XIII. THE TRUE STORY OF THE PROPHET. The change of name — Mythical ancestry — The good elder brother — White scoun- drels — Red villains — The great conspiracy — The rogue of a prophet — His miracles — The sun darkened — Tecumseh's love for his sister — His ambition — The nigh- before the battle — Tippecanoe — Harrison's victory — Tecumseh's rage — Battle of the Thames— Who killed Tecumseh? Pages 451-484 CHAPTER XIV. THE SORROWS OF THE SEMINOLES. The Seminole's curse — Blood-money — Exile or war — Massacred among the Pal- metto trees — Reign of terror on the plantations — The "House of Blood" — Scalped in a parlor — The tragedy in the flower garden — Thirty skeletons in a row — Fever, flood, famine — The conspirators in the chief's wigwam — Knives glistening in the starlight — The flight — Osceola betrayed — "I feel choked; you must talk" — The caged eagle — The squeeze through the embrasure — A fifty-foot leap — Osceola's dungeon— Despair — Death — Bloodhounds used in the war — Killed in a cupola — Horrors of the Florida war — Coacoochee's capture — The departure into perpetual exile Pages 485-520 CHAPTER XV. BLACK HAW^K'S HUMILIATION. First chapter of an Indian Genesis — Battles of the gods — Tricked into a treaty — Willing to die for his brother— "Move"— Who is Black Hawk?— Stealing roasting- ears from one's own fields — A dog banquet — A squaw swims the Mississippi, carry- ing her child in her teeth — "Paint me as I am"— The princely Keokuk— Gall and wormwood Pages 521-536 CONTEXTS. 13 CHAPTER XVI. THE HISTORY OF KIT CARSOX. The Carson family — An old mare for supper — Monsiem' Le Beaver — A tail for a shovel — Political and domestic life of the smart animal — Tlie great Kit — The trap- pers — Winter life in a trappers' tent — The ace of trumps — A fight in the snow — Two men in a fort— The dash for life — Twelve hundred dollars' worth of horses stolen — Carson's pursuit — Shot through the heart — Terrible fight with grizzly- bears — The summer rendezvous — The duel with the bullv — The ''surround"' — Othello's occupation gone — The angry trader — The Kansas border war — Tlie deserted home — Fremont and Kit — Through the Mesican lines — Bleeding feet — The runner — General Carson — Last sickness — ' "Doctor, compadre, adios I" Pages 587-o8o CHAPTEPv XVII. HEROES OF THE LONE STAR STATE. Nelson Lee, the Texan Ranger — A dollar a day to be shot at — Buckskin I's. Broadcloth — Tlie Ranger's Horse — A "greeny 's" fir.st taste — Seven hundred Comanciies — Tomahawks rising and falling — A bullet in a bridle arm — Bitten by a rattlesnake — The noble Black Prince — The cunning ranchero — His successful stratagem — On to the Rio Grande — The surrender of the Rangers to Mexicans- Lee escapes through a garden — In the dark river — Steep and slippery banks — Lee forces two Alexicans to guide him — The purchase of the watch — The night attack — Wonders of the watch — A god or a devil — which? — The awful torture — An Indian sweetheart — In the bushes — Recaptured — Lamed for life — Tlie Sleek Otter — Lee kills Rolling Thunder, and escapes: Pages 586-606 CHAPTER XVIII. HEROES OF THE LONE STAR STATE — CONTINUED. David Crockett — The wretched home — Dodging a drunken father — A child alone in a wilderness — Twice married — Walks fifty miles in one day — The flames of fever — Frontier justice — The candidate — In the Legislature — Moves west — The bear hunt in the storm — The coat with two pockets — '"Half horse, half alligator'" — Elected to Congress, when he could neither read nor write — The dinner with the President — Three terms — Tiien defeat — To Texas — The siege of the Alamo — Crockett bravely meets death — The fighting parson — A young teamster — A suc- cessful preacher — In the Confederate army — Attacked in the canon — Peaceful Jays Pages 607-625 CHAPTER XLX. THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE. The greatest real estate deal in history— The Democrat and the Autocrat- Pioneers of peace — Exploration on a large scale — Some forgotten heroes — '"The first American traveler*'— •"The greatest American traveler"— Cabeza de Vaca — 14 CONTENTS. John Law and the Mississippi Bubble — How we bought Louisiana— The Cabildo — The Santa Fe Trail — The Pony Express — Gold in the Black Hills — Custer's last fight— The Oklahoma "boom" — The pioneers of to-day Pages 626-635 CHAPTER XX. THE GREAT NORTHWEST. " Where and why pioneers advance into the wilderness — Effect of climate — Rivers the highways — The thirst for gold — The desire for freedom — Great names in the Great Northwest — The first American sailor on the Pacific Ocean — Lewis and Clarke expedition — Astoria — How Marcus Whitman saved Oregon — The Mormons and their journey to Utah — Gold in California — The Pacific rail- ways Pages 636 660 CHAPTER XXI. PANAMA AND THE CANAL. A new republic — Panama in history — The greed for gold — Character of the Spanish settlers — Discovery of tlie Pacific Ocean by Balboa — Spain attempts to keep her discoveries a secret — The Buccaneers — Plunder of Panama by Morgan and his men — The Route to the California gold fields — Opening of the railway — De Lesseps and the Panama Canal — Present condition and future Pages 661-674 CHAPTER XXII. THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION. The Leap of a Century — One hundred years of progress — The' rise of a great nation — Invention changing habits and methods of life — A fitting commemoration of the acquisition of the Mississippi Valley — The landscape beauty of the Exposition — Immensity and beauty — The palatial buildings — The wealth of exhibits — The treasures of art — Intellectual achievements — The attractions of the Midway — Sig- nificance of the Exposition , Pages 675-704 i:>^TRODUCTIOX. The Pioxezr was a rugged seer As he crossed the AA^est-ern river, Where the Copper Man called the Ixdiax Lay hid with his bow and quiver. As for the pioneer, liis days are niiml'iered. As for the Indian, there he stands, a specter on tht- horizon I The conflict has Ijeen irrepres-iljlt- . Tht-re cotihd be no compromise: the races wt-re to,) imlike. Tht^ r^d man had no Vieauty that iiLl de-ire him. The verdict of civil- ization has Ijeen. that hi- room i- lietter than his companv. It is an edict isstied from the court of Prou^'ess — that ferocious Titan Avho strides from East to AVest — that the Indian shall disappear, shall l^e remande-d to the jjast. shall evanish. In those great mi:>vements l"iy which the p»op)nlations of the TAojrld are transformed. Hi-tory is Idind. crtiel. remorseless. She is the least sentimental of all the divinities. She neither smiles at htiman happ)iness. nor weeps at human sorrow: she merely attend- t*;* h^r syllogism. AVhen she hnds a tril)e of nomads living in a valley adap'te'l to the ctiltivation of corn, she sends the news to -ome corn -raising race, and leaves the rest to cupidity and the casttists. And the castii-ts make a mtich of the Avhole btisiness. They seek a design. They linj the Nez Perce Indians . 642 Fremont on the Rocky Mountains 668 Robert Sieur De La Salle 673 Pere Marque4:te 674 Pierre Laclede, First Settler of St. Louis 675 The Destiny of the Red Man 675 Emblematic Group "Georgraphy and Society" 676 A Corner Entrance of the Varied Industries Palace 677 Machinery Palace in Foreground, Electricity Palace Beyond 678 Main Entrance and Portion of West Fagade of Educational Palace .... 679 A Corner Entrance of the Education Palace 680 THE GREAT POWHATAN. SUFFERINGS OF THE VROOMAN FAiVllLY. PIONEER WOMEN JNCI l INi; INDIANS TO VIOLENCE. ALICE THOMPSON'S APPEAL FOR MERCY. RED JACKET PLEADING FOR PEAC:^. CARSON CONDUCTING EMIGRANTS ACROSS THE SIERRA NEVADA. CARSON PARI.EYING WITH CHEYENNE SCOUTS. CHEYENNE BRAVES ON THE WAR PATI[. CHAPTER 1. THE LEGEND OF POWHATAN HE age of Elizabetli was an age of Tronders. The extension of commerce and tlie revival of learning, the reformation of religion and tlie revolution of science, the rise of civil liberty and the invention of negro slavery, the theory of the planets, the proof of the circulation of the 1)1 ood, and the discoveries in the Xew World, all condjined, at once, l)y their variety and opjiositeness, to stimulate and astonish the minds of men. It was a dozen epochs crowded into one. The wildest romances were seriously believed, and the soberest facts laughed at as chimeras. Every thing which was simple and matter of fact was rejected. The more improb- able a thino; was, the more willinHv men received it as truth. At such a time the stories of the traveler found a ready audience. Captain John Smith, the historian of PoAvhatan and Poca- hontas, was a traveler who narrated his oavu adventures. As a story-teller he was a success. What he tells us of Powhatan and his amiable daughter, is told as an aside to the stirring drama of his own life, Left an orphan, in England, at fifteen, l;ut with competent means, he was apprenticed to a trade, while his guardians appropriated his fortune to themselves. He had read books of romance and adventure enough to inspire him to 33 34 INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. run away. But lie was no ordinary boy. He rambled around over Europe, meeting with various adventures, taking part in the Continental wars until the peace of 1598. Being nineteen years old and eager for adventure, he enlisted in an army of mercenaries, employed in the war of the Netherlands. After a year or two of hacking at his fellow-men, he fell in with three rogues for companions, who robbed him and escaped. One of these gallants he afterward met, and ran through with his sword. Our hero next appears on a shij) bound for Italy. Getting into a quarrel with the passengers over religion and politics, they settled the argument by pitching him overboard. But ''God got him ashore on an island." He was picked up by a trading vessel, the Britaine^ which seemed to have no particu- lar destination, but lingered around for freight. The " freight " wanted was a Venetian merchant vessel, which no sooner ''spoke" than the Britaine fired a })roadside. A lively fight followed, but the merchant surrendered to the pirate. Of the spoils, Smith got "five hundred sequins, and a little box God sent him, worth as much more." His acknowledgments of Provi- dence are touching. Having wandered around Italy till he was tired, Smith went to Vienna, and enlisted in the army of the Emperor Rudolph, in the war against the Turks. The Turks had shut up Lord Ebersbraught in the besieged town of Olumpagh. Smith had invented a system of signals, which he had once providen- tially explained to Ebersbraught. Letters from A to L were represented by one torch displayed as many times as the letter was removed from A ; letters from M to Z were represented by two torches, similarly displayed. Three torches signified the end of a word. Going upon a hill, Smith flashed his torches to the besieged, signaling that they would attack at midnight on the east. The garrison were to make a sortie at the same time. On the side opposite to that of the intended attack, Smith set up some stakes in the plain, and strung them with long lines of powder strings. At the moment of the attack these were touched off, resembling the flash of musketiy, and the Turks ])re]mred, THE LEGEND OF POWHATAN, 35 in force, to resist the attack from this quarter. Their mistake was discovered too late to prevent the rescue of the garrison. From this time on. Smith bore the rank of captain. Still more chivalric are his performances in another siege. During the slow toil of the besieging Christians in making trenches and fortifications, the Turks would frequentlv yell at them, and ridicule their work. In order to pass away the time and "delight the ladies," the Turkish bashaw sent a challenge for single combat with any Christian. John Smith, aged twenty- three, accepted it. A theater was built, the armies drawn up, and the bashaw appeared to the sound of music. His capar- isoned horse was led by two janizaries, and his lance was borne by a third. On his shoulders were a pair of silver wings, and his costume was ornamented w^ith jeweled plumes. This gor- geous being Smith did not keep long in waiting. Accompanied by a single page, he took position, made a courteous salute, charged at the signal, and, before the bashaw could say Jack Robinson,' thrust his lance through the sight of his beaver, face, head, and all, threw him to the ground, and cut off his head." A friend of the bashaw's then challenged Smith. The fight was with pistols, the Englishman winning another head. Smith then became challeno:er. The combat was lona' and doubt- ful. The w^eapons were battle-axes. Once Smith dropped his, and the Turks set up a great cheer, but •'by his judgment and dexterity in such a business, by Gfod\s assistance, having drawn his fanchion, he pierced the Turk so under the culets, thorow backe and body." Smith was eventually taken prisoner, but only to meet with a new adventure. He was sent to be the slave of the beautiful Charatza Tragabigzanda at Constantinople. He was by no means ill-favored, and the tender passion soon inflamed the heart of the young mistress. But controlling herself, she sent him away to her brother Tymor, " to learn the language, till time made her mistress of herself." Smith thought he would, ere long, become her husband, but in an hour after his arrival the brother stripped INDiAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. him naked, forged a great iron ring about his neck, with a bent stick attached to it, and set him about the vilest tasks. One day Tymor was alone with him in a field. Mad with rage, Smith sprang on him, beat out his brains, dressed himself in the dead man's clothes, and made his escape. After wandering several days in a desert, he found a kind-hearted man, who knocked off the iron, and helped him to a ship homeward bound. Such was the man who, in 1605, returned to smoky, pesti- lential, and filthy London, a city without sidewalks or lighted streets, its houses, built of wood, vilely constructed and venti- lated, one-half of its people religious bigots, the other half abandoned debauchees. The town was feverish with excitement over the stories of the great Virginia, where gold was as com- mon as iron, where copper was dipped out of the rivers by the bowl full, where the inhabitants decked out in pearls as large as peas, supplied all visitors with the rarest fish and game and the finest fruits, " four times bigger than those in England." So, in 1606, when a charter was granted for a colony in Virginia, notwithstanding several previous ones had utterly failed, and left no monument but the story of their fate. Smith joined the expedition. Edward Wingfield was president. It is not won- derful that this crowd of seventy-one persons soon fell to quar- reling. They were from the slums of London- — thieves, plugs, cut-throats, idlers — in search, not of glory, but of a country where money could be had without labor, men, as Smith said, " more fit to mar a state than to make one." Their settlement in Virginia was called Jamestown. Here they had a rough time. The engraving on the opposite page gives a faithful view of the first day's work in the wilderness. It was a struggle for existence rather than for wealth. Discipline there was none. The president was accused of keeping the choicest stores for himself. The men would not work, supplies ran low, dis- ease and famine alike attacked the unhappy adventurers. One night they had an ugly row, in which all took part. Their preacher, Mr. Hunt, a good man, pacified them, and the next 88 THE LEGEND OF POWHATAN. day the crowd partook of the holy communion. All these colonial undertakings, no matter how abandoned the men, wore a cloak of religion. The ostensible aim, as expressed in the Jamestown charter was, " by the grace of Almighty God, to propagate the Christian religion to such people as yet live in darkness and miserable ignorance of all true knowledge, and worship of God." But the quarrel was ever breaking out anew. Conspiracies to kill Smith, depose Wingfield, and escape to England in the pinnace were as thick as hops. Sometimes one faction had the upper hand, sometimes the other. The intelligent directors, safe at home, had instructed the colonists to search for a pas- ^ sage to the North Sea, and in exploring rivers, when they reached a fork to take the branch leading to the north-west as most likely to come out right. In obedience to this. Captain Newport, Smith, and others shortly ascended the river which the savages called Powhatan. The country, too, bore the name, and the various tribes of Indians, whatever else they called themselves, were continually mentioning the same mysterious word. On their journey the explorers were hospitably treated, receiving presents of fruit, game, and vegetables, as w^ell as a roast deer and baked cakes. They reached a wigwam village, governed by a king, the name of town and ruler both being Powhatan. This chief is supposed to have been a son of the great Powhatan. The natives made elaborate feasts, and in return their chief was entertained on the ship, where the En- glish pork and peas and the liquors quite enraptured him. When the latter grew suspicious of a cross erected as a sign of English dominion, Newport told him the arms represented Pow- hatan and himself, and the middle their united league. On the morning after the feast on shipboard, the noble red man found himself too sick to get up ; no doubt, the result of the hot drinks he hjul taken to so kindly. After a multi- tude of feastings from other chiefs, the explorers returned to find that the colony had suffered a severe attack from savages. The INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. 39 president was cursed to his face for his failure to erect fortifica- tions. He was accused " of ingrissing to his private use oat- meale, sacke, ojle, aqua vit^e. beef, and egges while the others had only ^* a half pint of wheat, and as much barley boyled with water for a man a day, and this being fryed some twenty- six weeks in the ship's hold, contained as many wormes as graines." As a result of the quarrels. Wingfield was deposed and imprisoned. Wingfield denies embezzling the delicacies. " I never had but one squirrel roasted !" The colonists hung one of the council, and Smith himself came near it. The pious frauds had a church, however, with " Common Prayer morning and evening, every day two sermons, with an Homily on Sundaies." Smith seems to have been almost alone in his efforts to build up the colony. Every one else was crazy about gold. He made several short voyages, securing small amounts of corn from the Indians, which, with the swans, geese, and ducks on the rivers, wild ^* pumpkins and persimmons," made life quite tolerable, so that for a while the " tuftaffety " gentlemen of the colony quit wanting to return to England. Necessity, however, again drove Smith to make a more extended voyage up the Chickahominy. They proceeded up the river as far as possible with the pinnace. Then Smith took two of the crew, Robinson and Emry, ashore with him, where two Indians were hired to take them further in a canoe. The crowd in this canoe paddled some twenty miles. For convenience in getting supper, they pulled ashore. Leaving one Indian and the two Englishmen to boyle the pott," Smith took the other Indian with him to look around in the neighborhood for game. He had gone some distance when cries and yells were heard from the canoe, and then all grew stilL Smith rightly conjectured that the men had been attacked and killed. Seizing his guide, he bound him fast to his own arm with a garter, and made ready to fight. No Indians were yet in sight, but an arrow, winged by a hidden hand, struck Smith's thigh. Shortly a score of savages jumped from their 4:0 THE LEGEND OF POWHATAN, cover. Holding his terrified guide before him as a shield, Smith began a retreat to the boat. His pistol he fired as often as he could, and at every shot the savages fled. When the sound died away they would again appear and discharge their arrows, but the unlucky Indian tied to Smith's arm protected him well. But for an accident, the retreat would have been successful, and the story of Powhatan never have been set afloat in the current of history. While walking backwards, intent on his enemies. Smith fell into a quagmire, both his guide and himself sinking up to their breasts. To escape was out of the question. Almost dead with the cold, Smith threw away his weapons. The Indians then ran to him and pulled him out of the mud, built a fire, rubbed his benumbed limbs, and took him before their king, Ope- chancanough, a brother, as it transpired, of the great Powhatan. Smith was a man of resources. He drew out a compass, which greatly interested the savage, and then proceeded to " demonstrate by that globe-like Jewell, the roundness of the Earth and Skies the Spheare of the Sunne, Moone, and Starres, and how the Sunne did chase the night round about the world continually ; the greatness of the Land and See, the diversitie of Nations, varietie of Complexions, and how we are to them Antipodes." These wonderful qualities of a compass have, probably, never been made use of by any but our own Smith. The secret of his demonstration is lost to science. At any rate, it evidently impressed the savage, as it must the reader, with the ingenious intellect of the lecturer. The king saw his captive was an extraordinary man. Smith was placed under guard, and the Indians formed in procession to conduct him to Orapaka, a " Town and Seat much frequented by Powhatan and the Imperial Family." The king walked first, followed by poor Smith, held by three lusty savages. On either side walked a file of six more, with their arrows notched. The remainder followed in single file. The village celebrated the strange cap- ture with games, dances, and feastings. Smith was placed in a long house, with forty savages for a guard. For supper he had INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES, 41 a quarter of venison and ten pounds of bread. Each morning three women brought him three great platters of fine bread and more venison than a dozen men coukl devour. In sj^ite of the plenty, Smith's appetite was poor, as he thought they fed him highly in order to eat him. His captors were preparing to attack Jamestown, and Smith exerted himself to explain the terrible cannon, the mines with which the fort was, he said, surrounded, and the certain failure which would result from an attack. To prove it, and to procure some presents for the Indians, he asked the king to send messengers to the fort. This request was granted. Three naked savages set out through the snow and ice of winter on the trip. Smith took care to send a letter, scratched on some bark, telling the colonists that he was safe, and hoAv to both treat the messengers well, yet to frighten them with the cannon, and to send him certain trinkets. When the messengers returned, great was the astonishment of the village that Smith had been able to talk so far to his friends, and that the messengers had brought what he predicted they would bring. After many days of delay and ceremony, the Indians decided to take Smith before their emperor, Powhatan, the Indian C?esar, who had conquered the entire region, to whom innumerable chiefs and tribes were subject. Such was the extent of his name that the English, understanding little of the language but hearing the word often repeated, by turns regarded it as we have seen, as the 'name of a river, of the country, of the people, of a town, and of the chief whom they met in their first voyage. This man had extended his dominions till they were many times the size of his original inheritance. The hereditary chiefs or "kings" of the subject tribes were permitted to rule their own tribes as before the conquest, and their local laws and customs were not interfered with, on condition of their paying annual tribute to Powhatan of " Skins, Beades, Copper, Pearl, Deare, Turkies, wild Beastes, and Corn," a system of govern- ment strangely similar to that of the Roman Empire. His subjects 42 THE LEGEND OF POWHATAN, regarded him as half man and half God, a rather intimate union of church and state. When the dauntless Smith was presented to this important personage, he seemed about sixty years old, his hair was gray, his figure tall and majestic. He was reclining at the end of a long apartment, on a chair or couch of state, covered with great robes of furs, with a coronet of immense, gayly colored plumes on his head. At his head and feet sat two shapely young Indian girls, in scanty attire, his youngest and favorite wives. Behind him were grouped the rest of his wives, adorned with beads and decorated with the most gaudy paints. Around the room were arranged fifty of the tallest warriors in his domin- ions. This " palace guard " was increased to two hundred from this time on account of the English. He is said to have lived in great barbaric state and magnificence.'' At night a sentinel was posted on each corner of the house, who was required at cer- tain intervals to give a signal to the guard in the house. If he slept or omitted the signal he received terrible punishment. Powhatan had a large number of towns or seats in which he, from time to time, made his residence, according to the season or the character of the game which each place afforded. On Smith's entrance into the dusky emperor's hall of state, a terrific shout was set up. The Queen of Appomattox (a name now familiar to every American), brought a copper basin of water, while her companion attended with a bunch of feathers on which to dry Smith's hands. The emperor, having assured liimself that Smith's hands Avere clean, proceeded to ask him ii] numerable questions as to where he was from, where he was going, what brought the whites to his kingdom, what were their intentions, what kind of a country they lived in, and how many warriors they had. No doubt, the slayer of three Turkish bashaws, and the pet of the princess, Tragabigzanda, was equal to his opportunities. It is possible that the old savage regarded him as a liar, for after his questionings were over. Smith says, ^^a long consultation was held, but the conclusion was, two INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. 43 great stones were brought before Powhatan ; then as many savages as could, layd hands on him, dragged him to them, and theron laid his head," preparatory to beating out his precious brains Avith their war-clubs. By lucky accident Smith escaped the doom through the famous intercession of Pocahontas, the king's dearest daughter, whom no entreaty could prevaile, but gat his head in her arms, and laid her own upon his to save him from death," an incident which has been expanded, moral- ized upon, and applauded in turn by a hundred historians. No doubt poor Smith received the caresses of the Indian maiden with a sensation raiely the lot of mortals to enjo}', for the stern old emperor looked at the scene for a moment, mut- tered a few words in his strange tongue, and, with his own hand lifted the girl and Smith from the ground. Smith was still doubt- ful of his fate for a day or two. During this time he busied himself carving wooden toys for Pocahontas, who had saved him by her intercession. These tilled the childish hearts of herself and her companions with delight. While making himself pop- ular with the young girls, Smith noticed with satisfaction that the chiefs still admired and wondered at the compass as much as ever. In the picture on the opposite page the wily English- man is presenting Pocahontas with a wooden doll, which he has just manufactured. One day, old Powhatan laid aside his dignity, as most kings do at times, and disguising himself in the most horrible manner, with two hundred others, as blacke as himselfe," hid behind a curtain in a large house, to which Smith was presently brought. He sat down by the fire, thinking the apartment otherwise unoc- cupied, when Avith unearthly shrieks and a ^'hellishe noise." the savages jumped from their hiding-place, brandishing weapons, and making horrible contortions as they circled around him. He supposed his end was at hand. The affair was only a joke, though he was well-nigh dead with apprehension. There are still savages, white enough. Avho enjoy such jokes. PoAvhatan explained the matter Avith many grins, furnished him Avith CAPTAIN SMITH AMUSES POCAHONTAS WITH TOYS. TilE LEGEND OF POWHATAN. 45 guides, and sent him back to Jamestown. Smith promised to send his liberator "two gmines and a gryndestone." This promise he fulfilled by offering his guides two culverins and a mill-stone, which they could not possibly transport. He took care both to frighten by firing the culverins and to pacify them with many presents for Powhatan and his wives. Smith's life, however, was scarcely safer among the ruffians at the fort than among the savages. On the day of his return, his enemies, headed by Ratcliffe, the president, arrested him on the charge of murdering his two companions, Robinson and Emry, found him guilty, and sentenced him to be hung the next morning, a sentence of which the fulfillment was only prevented by the arrival of Newport, from England, the same evening. The affectionate Pocahontas and her fiither did not forget Smith. Two or three days after his return a fire broke out, destroying their buildings and supplies at the fort. Shortly afterward, Pocahontas, a perfectly nude maiden, appeared at the fort with a train of attendants such as herself, bringing presents of corn and game to Smith and his friends. This visit was only the first of a long series, in which Pocahontas came to the fort regu- larly, at least twice a week, with abundant gifts. She Avas only eleven or twelve years old, evidently of a kind and generous nature, but full of the fun which belongs to youth. On the occasions of her visits to the fort, she became well acquainted with the men. Her sportiveness was manifested by " making cart wheeles," falling on her hands, " heeles upwards," and turn- ing over and over around the fort. During Smith's seven weeks' captivity, which had been a great advantage in gaining the confidence and learning the lan- guage of the Indians, he, in order to awe them, greatly bragged of the immense power and skill of Captain Newport. Though he secretly despised the man. Smith, priest-like, set up the bogus image before the worshiping multitude, and called it divine. Powhatan naturally had a great desire to see New- port, and he was promised the pleasure. The new-comers on 46 INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. the ship completely demoralized the prices in trade with the Indians. The sailors were foolishly granted the privilege of trading, and it soon took a pound of copper to buy the quantity of corn for which only an ounce of the inetal had previously been required. Only such Indians as had his special license were allowed by Powhatan to visit the fort and trade. One poor redskin slipped in one day without license, and furtively sold a little basket of corn. For this offense the enqjeror had him killed. Newport sent forward to Powhatan presents, much too rich to be wise, and followed himself with Smith and forty men. When they arrived at Werowocomoco, the wary Newport declined going ashore, for fear of treachery, till Smith first examined the situation. Even Smith, before crossing the crazy traps, which bridged a network of creeks, required a large num- ber of Indians to precede him, and retained others as hostages, lest tlie affairs should be pitfalls. The village wore a holi- day h)ok. Fifty great platters of fine bread stood in front of Powhatan's lodge. The emperor received Smith with great state and display, caused him to sit on the right hand of his throne, and renewed the old acquaintance with friendly conver- sation, in Avhich Smith\s joke about the " gunnes and grynde- stone " drew much loud laughter. Smith presented Powhatan with a suit of red cloth, a white greyhound, and a hat. He was lodged with Powhatan, and served by a young Indian woman, who was appointed to attend him, with an abundance of rich and various food. In the evening there was a feast, with songs, dances, and speeches. Next morning Newport came ashore, and was royally entertained for four days. Powhatan spared no effort to elaborate his hospitality, proclaiming death to any subject who offered any discourtesy to his guests. New- port gave him a white boy, Thomas Savage, as a present. When they came to trade, Powhatan was much too crafty for Newport. He affected great dignity, said the great Pow- hatan could not enter into a dicker. "Let Captain Newport lay down all his commodities. Such as Powhatan wants he will THE LEGEND OF POWHATAN. 47 take and then make such recompense as is right." Such was his speech. Newport fell into the trap. He received four bushels of corn when he should have had two hundred. Smith seeing this failure, apparently by accident glanced some blue beads, so that their glint caught the eye of the Indian, who at once became eager to see them. Smith denied having them, then protested he could not sell them, that they w^ere made of the same stuff as the sky, and were only to be worn by the greatest kings on earth. All this inflamed the savage's anxi- ety to the highest pitch, and he offered twenty, fifty, a hundred, two hundred, three hundred bushels of corn. Smith yielded to this last offer wdth great show of reluctance, took his corn, "and yet," he says, '^parted good friends." The presence of Newport's ship at the colony was a constant demoralization. Such of the shoremen as had any thing of value whatever traded it to the sailors for liquor or ship stores, which were wasted in excesses. Smith wanted Newpoi-t to leave, but he caught the "gold fever," and remained fourteen weeks, diligently loading his vessel with river sand, in which were shining particles of mica, which he insisted were gold. The idle colonists gave up regular work, in spite of Smith's expostulations, and dreamed of fabulous wealth. The ship remained so long that its stores were exhausted, and instead of the colony receiving supplies from Newport, actually had to divide its meager store to revictual the ship for the return. Newport sailed proudly away with his cargo of dirt, but not without doing a mischief to the colony. Powhatan, with a motive clear as day to Smith, sent Newport twenty turkeys, asking for twenty swords in return, which the goose at once sent him. Soon afterward he sent a like present and message to Smith, but obtained no swords for his trouble, which angered him. Though professing friendship, the Indians began to give trouble with their thieving. Several men from the fort were waylaid in the forest and stripped of their weapons. Thus matters went on till Smith took several of the Indians prisoners^ 48 . INDIAN TRAGEPmS AND ROMANCES. and by dint of threats and promises learned from them that the crafty Powhatan, seeing the superiority of English weapons, and designing to massacre the colony, had undertaken to trade for weapons with Newport and Smith, and, failing with the latter, to take them from the colonists whenever caught out alone. Another sign of hostility was the return of the boy Savage, with bag and baggage, to the fort. Learning that sonie of his people were prisoners, the emperor of Virginia sent the lovely Pocahontas, " Avho not only for feature, countenance, and pro- portion, much exceedeth any of the rest of his people, but for wit and spirit the only nonpareil of his country," to Smith to deny hostile intentions and ask for the release of his men. Any favor asked by Pocahontas was certain to be granted, and after prayers, and a hearty meal, the warriors were given back their bows and arrows, and restored to liberty. Smith, who was never idle, one day went on an exploring trip around the Chesapeake Bay, on which he met with many adventures. Once he caught a fish on his sword, which in being taken off thrust its " poysonne sting of two or three inches long, bearded like a saw," into his wrist. The arm quickly swelled to an enormous size, and the torment was so great that he gave up hope, and his friends prepared a grave under his directions. Luckily "it pleased God, by a precious oyle Dr. Russell applied to it, that his tormenting paine was so assuaged that he ate of that fish to his supper." Once he met the Susquehannock Lidians, distinguished by their friendly disposi- tion and enormous stature. Their tobacco pipes were three feet long, their voices " sounded from them as they were a great noyse in a vault or cave, as an ecco." The calf of the chief's leg "was three-quarters of a yard about," and his body of similar proportions. On September 10, 1608, Smith was made president of the colony. He at once stopped the erection of a pleasure house, which Ratcliffe, who had succeeded Wingfield in the presidency, was having built for his own use, and set the men about useful THE LEGEND OF POWHATAN. 49 labor. Things had barely begun to run smoothly when the marplot Newport returned with several wild schemes. He brought with him orders for a coronation of Powhatan as emperor, together Avith elaborate presents for the old Indian. A more foolish thing was never perpetrated. The elTect of the coronation was to increase Powhatan's notion of his own importance, and make it impossible to maintain friendly relations with him. Smith's hard sense j^i^otested against the folly, but finally he insisted on at least trying to get Powhatan to come to Jamestown for the ceremony. With this object he went to Powhatan's residence, but finding him away from home, was compelled to wait a day for his return. In the meantime Poca- hontas had some more of her fun. Smith and his men were sitting around a fire in the open air, when they were alarmed by the most frightful uproar in the surrounding woods. They seized their arms and thought they were betrayed. In a moment Pocahontas came running up to Smith, and told him he might kill her if any hurt was intended, and explained that it was only sport. At the head of her thirty young women, attired as we have intimated was their fashion, she led them in a wonderful "anticke," dancing, singing, crying, leaping, casting themselves in circles around the visitors, and " falling into their infernal passions." An hour was spent in this ^*.mascarade." Then " they solemnly invited Smith to their lodgings, where he was no sooner in the house, but all these nymphs more tor- mented him than ever, with crowding, pressing, hanging about him, most tediously crying, " Love you not me ? Love you not me?" After this he was seated at the most elaborate banquet of savage dainties which the ingenuity of Pocahontas and her nymphs could devise. The feast at last broke up, and his dusky tormentors escorted him to his lodging with a fire-brand procession. In the morning, Smith, his head no doubt a little thick from the frolic, stated his wish to Powhatan, agreeing to assist him in a war against his enemies, the Monacans, if he would come 50 INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND nOMANCES. to Jamestown. But this proud representative in the American forest of the divine rights of kings, haughtily replied : " If your king has sent me a present, I also am a king, and this is my land; eight days I will stay to receive them. Your father is to come to me, not I to him, nor yet to your fort; neither will I bite at such a bait; as for the Moiiacans, I can revenge my own injuries." "This was the lofty potentate," says a charming writer, "whom Smith could have tickled out of his senses with a glass bead, and who would infinitely have preferred a big shining copper kettle to the misplaced honor intended to be thrust upon him, but the offer of which puffed him up beyond the reach of negotiation." Smith retui'iied with liis message. If the mountain would not come to Mahomet, then Mahomet must go to the mountain. Smith describes with rare humor the ridiculous ceremony of the coronation, the hist act of Avhich shows that Powhatan him- self must have seen the size of the joke. " The presents were brought him, his bason and ewer, bed and furniture set up, his scarlet cloke and apparel with much adoe put on him, being assured they would not hurt him. But a foule trouble there was to make him kneel to receive his crown; he not knowing the majesty, nor wearing of a crown, nor bending of the knee, endured so many persuasions, examples, and instructions as tyred them all. At last, by bearing hard on his shoulders, he, a little stooped, and three having the crown in their hands, put it on his head, when by the warning of a pistoll the boats were prepared with such a volley of shot, that the king started up in a horrible feare, till he saw all was well. Then remembering himself to congratulate their kindness, he gave his old shoes and his mantell to Capt. Newport I " The mountain labored, and brought forth a mouse. This magnificent failure to get two ship loads of corn which Newport had promised, redu(?ed the colonists almost to starva- ^ tion. Smith, finding no corn was to be procured peaceably THE LEGEND OF POWHATAN. 51 from the Indians, began a more radical policy. Taking a strong force with him, he again sailed np the Chickahominy, and declaring his pnrpose to be to avenge his captivity and the murder of his men, he made war. It w^as not long before the Indians sued for peace, and paid one hundred bushels of corn, a serious inroad on a small harvest, for their crops had failed. Things went on poorly enough at the fort. Out of three hun- dred axes, hoes and pick-axes, only twenty could be found, the thievish colonists having secretly traded them off to the Indians. The hundred bushels of corn were soon gone. In their extremity Powhatan sent word to Smith to visit him, send him men to build him a house, give him a grindstone, fifty swords, some big guns, a cock and hen, much copper and beads, and he would in return load Smith's ship with corn. Unw^illing to miss an opportunity, however slight, to procure supplies. Smith resolved to humor Powhatan by sending some workmen, among whom were two knavish Dutchmen, to build the house, and to follow with a force strong enough to take old Powhatan's corn by force if it could not be had peaceably. It was midAvinter. A severe storm detained Smith and his men on the way, and compelled them to celebrate their Christ- mas among some friendly Indians. While the winter storm raged without, the men were warmly lodged among the savages, and feasted around the roaring fires on splendid bread, fish, oysters, game, and wild fowl. Proceeding on their journey, their landing at Powhatan's residence had to be made by wading breast deep through the half frozen shallows and mire for a half mile. Powhatan sent down provisions for them, but pretended not to have sent for them at all. Smith reproached him with deceit and hostility. Powhatan replied by wordy evasions, and seemed coolly indif- ferent about his new house. He demanded guns and swords in exchange for corn, which Smith refused. The old emperor then said he doubted the intentions of the English, for he had heard that they came not so much for trade as to invade and possess 52 ' INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. his country. For what good purpose did Smith and his men carry arms, if they really came on an errand of peace? Let them leave their weapons in their vessel, in order that his people might not be afraid to bring in their corn, and as a proof that their intentions were peaceful. "Let us all be friends together and forever Powhatans." The secret of Powhatan's conduct lay in the fact, not entirely discovered by Smith for some months, that the two Dutchmen, yielding to the seductive influence of Powhatan's abundant table and comfortable quar- ters, had betrayed the destitute condition of the colonists to him. At an interval in the dispute Smith managed to trade an old copper kettle to the emperor for eighty bushels of corn. Then the debate was renewed with the same vigor. Powhatan, liar that he was, said that he had lived to see the death of three generations of his people, and his experience taught him that peace was better than war. Why then would the English try to take by force what they could quickly have by love? Why would they destroy Powhatan and his people who provided them food? What could be gained by war? Powhatan in his old age could take his people, hide their corn, burn their lodges, fly to the forest, and live there in the cold, subsisting on acorns and roots. But this would not only make him and his people bit- terly unhappy; the English themselves must starve if they destroyed the people who furnished them food. Powhatan and Captain Smith would alike end their lives in misery. He con- cluded with an earnest appeal to Smith to have his men lay aside their guns and swords. But Smith was proof against this eloquence. Believing that Powhatan's purpose was to disarm the English and then mas- sacre them, he ordered his men to break the ice and bring the vessel nearer shore. Then more men were to land and an attack was to be made. The intellect of the Indian and the white man were well patched in their insight into character and in craftiness. No diplomacy inferior to that of the Indian emperor could have so long retained the upper hand of Smith. THE LEGEND OF POWHATAN. No leader of less courage and resources than John Smith could so long have maintained a starving colony in the hostile domin- ions of the great Powhatan. In order to consummate the move- ment by which his entire force should become available for action, Smith kept Powhatan engaged in a lengthy conversation. But the Indian outw^itted him. Suspecting his motive, Pow- hatan, skillfully excused himself for a moment, leaving three of his most entertaining wives to occupy Smith's attention, and passing through the rear of his bark dwelling, escaped to the forest, while the house was silently surrounded by his warriors. When Smith discovered his danger, he rushed boldly out, fired at the nearest Indian, and made his way unhurt to the shore. The English, then, with leveled muskets, forced the Indians to load the boat with corn. Night came on ; the work was done, but the vessel could not sail till hieh tide. Smith and his men had to pass the night ashore. Powhatan designed to surprise them by an attack w^hile at their supper. Once more the gentle Pocahontas saved Smith. Slipping into the camp, she took Smith aside, hurriedly told him that her father would shortly send down an abundant supper for the English, but, that while the latter were engaged in the meal, an attack would be made by her father with all his warriors. Smith offered her handsome presents and rewards, but with tears run- ning down her cheeks, she refused them all, saying, that if she were seen to have them, it would cost her her life. Once more urging Smith to depart, the affectionate girl turned from him and fled into the forest, the gloom of which was deepened by the thickening shadows of a winter twilight. Presently ten huge savages came, bearing a hot supper for the English, and urged them to eat. But Smith compelled the cooks first to taste their own broth as an assurance that it was not poisoned. The night was one of anxiety. Large numbers of savages could be seen lurking around. No one was permitted to sleep, but all were required to be prepared for a fight at any moment. Their vigilance saved them, and in the morning the homeward 54 INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. trip was commenced. It was a dark prospect for the colonists. They had escaped this time, but could they always do as well? Where were their supplies to come from, if not from the Indians ? Meanwhile, the Dutch traitors made a trip overland to the fort, represented that Smith had sent them, and procured guns, ammunition, fifty swords, tools, and clothing. They also induced six " expert thieves " to desert with them to Powhatan. On the way back Smith had a thrilling adventure with Ope- chancanough, the savage to whom Smith had delivered his lec- ture on astronomy. In the hope of securing corn. Smith took fifteen men and w^ent up to the chief's house, where he found himself betrayed and surrounded by seven hundred armed salv- ages. Smith spoke to his men, told them to follow his example and die fighting. He then openly accused Opechancanough of an intent to murder him, and challenged him to single combat, the Indian to choose the weapons, and the victor to cut ofi* the other's head and be lord over the countrymen of the vanquished. This the Indian refused, denied his hostile intention, and laid a handsome present just outside the door. Had Smith gone out- side, he would have fallen, pierced by a hundred arrows. Seiz- ing an opportunity, he rushed up to the king, grabbed him by the hair, placed a loaded pistol at his head, and marched him around, half dead with fright, before all his warriors. Looking on Smith as a god, the people threw down their arms. It was not long till they were trading in good style. Here Smith was overtaken by a messenger from the fort, who had gone to Pow- hatan's residence, seen great preparations for war, and only escaped alive through being concealed by Pocahontas in her lodge, and, having been furnished by her with provisions for his journey, safely conducted away at night. New disasters at the fort required Smith's presence. Beset by hostile savages along the river, he at last reached home, with five hundred bushels of corn as the result of this exhausting campaign in the dead of winter. New hardships beset the col- ony, but were met with reiiewed energy on the part of Smith, FRENCH AND INDIAN HUNTERS OF THF: BEUE JUNIATA. AN INDIAN SCOUT RECONNOITERING. HAT I LK UF CAPTAIN SMITH AND THE INplAN CHIEF. / THE LEGEND OF POWHATAN. 57 The renegade Dutclimeii managed through confederates in the gang of ruffians within the fort to continue the thefts of arms and ammunition. '- , ^ One day, Smith, while walking in the forest, encountered the gigantic king of Paspahey, and a terrible combat ensued. The savage, of great strength and stature, slowly forced Smith into the water, intending to drown him. But the Indian stum- bled over a stone. To regain his balance ho threw up his hands. At the same instant Smith's iron hand grasped his throat; with the other hand the Englishman whipped out his sword to kill his foe. But the Indian pleaded for his life. Smith was a kind-hearted fellow, and besides, full of vanity. The notion struck him th.'it it would be a fine thing to take the big Indian prisoner to the fort as proof of his prowess. This he at once proceeded to do. Our artist has given us a vivid picture of the scene of the combat, just at the moment when Smith, clutching his adversary's throat, paused with sword in air. The Indian was taken safely to the fort and put in chains. He subsequently managed to escape, probably through the help of Smith's enemies. Shortly afterward, on a trip up the Pamunkey (now York) River, Smith was attacked by this king's people, but when they knew their foe, they threw down their arms, and their best ora- tor addressed Smith, telling him that his ex-captive was there and proceeding to justify the escape. "Do you blame the fish for swimming, or the bird for flying ? Then you should not blame my master for obeying the instinct of his nature to escape to the freedom of his forests. Why do you pursue us and force us at too great loss to avenge the injuries Ave receive at your hands ? The red man is a savage ; he know^s not the white man's God. But these are his rivers and forests. Here his people have hunted and fished, planted seed and gathered harvests, for many generations. Yet the white man seeks to take what is not his. If you succeed in conquering us, we will simply abandon the country of our fathers, and remove to a place where we will 58 INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. be beyond the white man's reach. If that were done the English w^ould gain nothing, but would lose the corn and fruit we are willing to sell them. Why not, then, let us enjoy our houses, and plant our fields in peace and security, seeing that you as well as we will be benefited by our toil ?" The result of this speech was a friendship which lasted for many years. A singular incident at this time raised Smith's reputation to the highest pitch among the savages. Two of Powhatan's peo- ple had stolen a pistol. Smith arrested them, threw one in the dungeon, and gave the other a certain time to produce the pistol, in default of which the prisoner should die. Smith, pitying the fellow in the dungeon, sent him some food and some charcoal for a fire. At midnight the other returned with the pistol, but his friend was found badly burned, and smothered to death with charcoal fumes. The grief of the poor fellow was so great that Smith said, if he would be quiet he would restore his compan- ion to life. Little thinking a recovery would take place, Smith applied stimulants and rubbed the Indian's body, when suddenly he sat up! To the great sorrow of his friend the "dead" Indian was crazy. Smith, catching the spirit of the thing, told the other to be cjuiet, and he would restore reason to his friend also. The patient was laid by the fire and allowed to sleep till morning. He awoke in his right senses. Thenceforth the Indians believed Smith could restore the dead to life. For three months, the colonists, through the iron discipline of Smith, enjoyed peace and prosperity. Twenty cabins were built at the fort; a block- house erected for defense, through which lay the only entrance; a good well was dug, and a considerable quantity of tar and soap ashes manufactured. One day the unlucky colonists found that their abundant store of corn was eaten up by the rats, which, from the few brought over in the ship, had increased to thousands. With- out corn for bread work had to be stopped. No provision, except wild roots and herbs, could be procured at that time of year. Eighty men were sent down the bay to live on oysters ; THE LEGE XL OE PO WHAT AX. 59 twenty wnut up the river to siib.-i.st on li.-h. The Indians, to show their friendship, brotiglit to the Ibrt what game they could find. Sturgeon were abundairt. Those of the colony who were not too lazy, dried the tish. puunded it to powdnr. mixed it with herbs, and made a very tolerable bread. The majority, however, would rather starve than work. They impurtuned and abtised Smith because he refused to trade guns, swords, and ammtinition for corn. He. at last, issued an order, reciting that every man able tu work who failed to gather tach day as much proA'i-ion in a day a> he himself did. should be taken across the river, and left as a drone. Some of the vagabonds preferred to desert to the Indians, where they couLi partake of the abunilance withuut labor. But Powhatan and his tributary chieftains imitated Smith, and all whites who refused to w^ork were floo-Q-ed and sent back to the fort. MM;inwhile treachery was at work without and within. The ^Tllians at the fort plotted with Powhatan tu betray it. The Indians were being taught that King James would kill Smith for his ill-treatment of them. Besides these obstacles, the Vir- ginia Cumpau}' was greatly dissatisfied. A cunsiderable invest- ment nf money in the colony had brotight no return. The Xorth Sea was undiscovered. This was without exctise. argued the Lundon magistrates, when unly a little longer trip, twenty, thirty, or furty miles w^ould. 'louljtless. have brotight the colo- nists to the other ocean. AVhat want of cuurage and common sense w^a.- shnwn by nut pu>hing the matter ! Besides, there were yet nu eargue^ uf guld pig> ur even copper pigs sent home. There mu-t be golu there. Every one said there was. Prob- ably Smith was amassing a fortune, and his celony rolling in a life of wealth and luxury, while he left the Honurable Boai^i of Directors to hold the bag. Xo doubt there were mountain ranges of solid gold in Virginia, but the directors were not fault- finding. A certain report uf one single mountain, or even hill, of gold would be satisfactory. Ea'cu a very little hill, say two hundred feet high and two thousand feet in circumference, if it 60 INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. were not full of caves, would be quite comforting. Such a modest demand, they argued, ought to be complied with. Thus, at war with the Indians, betrayed by his own men, and misrepresented and abused by the English capitalists. Smith, no doubt, felt that, after all his hardships, his fall was at hand. Lord De La Ware and others obtained a new charter and commission from the English king. Preparations, more elaborate than for any previous expedition, were made. Sev- eral ships in the fleet were wrecked in a storm. Those which reached Jamestown brought many enemies of Smith, and a great crowd of the London riff-raff. Smith, not yet formally superseded, continued to exert his authority. To relieve the Jamestown settlement somewhat of its unruly elements, Smith planned two new settlements, one under Cap- tain West and one under Martin. Each, with its proportion of provisions, set out in high glee. Martin and his men went to Nausemon. The poor savages received him kindly, but the novice mistook their noisy mirth, as they celebrated his arrival, for hostility, and falling on the wretched Indians, captured their poor, naked king and his houses. The work of fortification was begun, and the savages, divining Martin's fear, attacked him, released their king, killed several men and captured a thousand bushels of corn which Martin had traded for. The other expedition pitched its settlement in low, swampy ground, liable to inundation, and well suited to breed fevers among the men. To remedy this mistake Smith, still the president, sent to Powhatan proposing to buy the town called Powhatan, for the new settlement. A treaty was at last made between them, by the terms of which Powhatan agreed to resign the town, its forts and houses, with the entire region thereabouts to the English. The latter, in return, were to defend him and his dominions from the Monacans, and to pay annually a certain proportion of copper. All thieves were to be promptly returned to their own people for punishment. Each house of Powhatan's was to annually furnish one bushel of corn THE LEGEXD OF FOWHATAX CI in exchange for a cubic inch of copper. When this treaty of trade and friendship was completed, the swaggerers and roust- abouts of the settlement denied Smith's authority, and refused to stir an inch from their swamp. In attempting to quell the mutiny Smith barely escaped with his life. Well knowing the importance of keeping faith with Powhatan^ he exerted all his skill to induce the men to take advantage of the treaty. But the settlement had the notion that the Monacan country was full of gold, that they could prevent any one else than them- selves from visiting it, and that Smith's desire to remove them was prompted by his wish to secure access to the gold fields for himself. Meanwhile. Powhatan's people began to complain bitterly to Smith. The old emperor sent messengers, saying that those whom he had brought for their protectors were worse enemies than the Monacans themselves ; that these ^' protectors stole their corn, robbed their gardens, broke open their houses, beat them, and put many in prison ; that, heretofore, out of love for him. they had borne these wrongs, but after this they must defend themselves.'' The shrewd old diplomate also offered, to fight with Smith against the settlement and quell the mutiny, which he was keen enough to perceive and understand. Failino^ in his well-meant efforts. Smith sailed away. Acci- dents are sometimes fortunate. His ship ran aground. Mes- sena^ers came runuino\ bea^oiuo; him to return. In the brief interval since his departure. Powhatan's enraged people had made an attack, killing many of the settlement. Smith returned, restored order, removed the colony to the town Pow- hatan, where they found a fort capable of defense against all the savages in Virginia, good warm and dry houses to live in. and two hundred acres of land ready for planting corn. This comfortable and secure place was called Non-such. Hardly were they well settled, when the old infatuation seized them. Mutiny broke out. Smith, seeing the mutineers bent on their own destruction, gave up in despair and left them forever. 62 INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. They at once abandoned the eligible lodges and fort at Non- such to return to the open air, and poisoned at that, of the old swamp. Misfortunes come not singly but in whole battalions. As Smith was returning to Jamestown, disgusted at the folly he had witnessed, a bag of powder in the boat was accidentally fired, tearing the flesh from his body and thighs and inflicting terrible burns. In his agony he leaped into the river, and was barely saA^ed from drowning. Lacking both doctor and nurse, flat on his back at the fort, suffering untold torments from the wounds, poor Smith succumbed at last. His enemies deposed him ; a plot to murder him in his bed was almost consummated, an elab- orate indictment for his misdeeds was drawn up, and on Septem- ber 29, 1609, he sailed away from the inhospitable shores of Virginia to return no more — "Ingratitude, more strong than traitor's arms, O'ercarae him quite." Powhatan at once commenced active hostilities. Henry Spelman was an English boy whom Smith had given to Powhatan in the trade for the town of the same name. He had afterwards left Powhatan and returned to the fort. Pow- hatan sent Thomas Savage, the other boy whom Newport had given him, to Jamestown on an errand. Savage complained of loneliness, and easily persuaded Spelman to return with him. Powhatan now made use of him by sending word to the fort that he would sell them corn if they would come up for it. It may be easily believed that supplies were running low, now that Smith was no longer there to plan and execute methods for their procurement. An expedition of thirty-eight men set out at once. No suspicion of treachery was felt. As the boat landed, the Indians, who lay in ambush, sprang forth in over- powering numbers and killed every man in the party except Spelman, who was returning with them. He fled through the woods, made known his distress to Pocahontas, whose tender THE LEGEXD OE PO WHAT AX. 63 heart seems to have been ever responsive to misfortune. Through her help he was hidden for a while, furnished with provisions by her own hand, and then, assisted to secret flight. Powhatan henceforth haughtily refused all trade. The forests were filled with lurking savages. Many a man went out from the fort to hunt game who never returned. Sucli food as they had uu hand was consumed and wasted by the officers. The colonists bartered away their very swords and guns, with which alone corn could be prociu^d. Of the five hun- dred colonists at the time of Smitlls departure there remaincfl. at the end of six months, only sixty, and these subsisted cliietly on '-roots, herbs, acorns, walnuts, and berries, and now and then a little fish." It is almost impossible to believe the stories of this starving time." The corpses of two savages who had been killed, were seized by the poorer colonists, boiled with roots and herbs, and greedily devoured. One among the rest did kill his ivife^ i)owdered her, and had eaten part of her before it was knoumr This man was burned alive for his crime. Strange as this story is, it was reaffirmed in most partictilars in the published report of an official investigation into the affairs of the colony l)y the London directors in the year 1610. These extremities were the result of sloth, vice, and crime as much as of the natural hardships of the situation. The colony was composed of the very offscourings of London. All planting and gathering of crops Avas abandoned, the houses decayed, the church became a tumbling ruin. They ate their fish ra^w rather than build a fire and cook it. When Somers and Gates, after terrible adventures, arrived with Te-enforcements. they said the colony would have been extinct in ten days had not succor arrived. With wavering fortunes the colony continued to exist. We have little account of PoAvhatan, owung to the fict that his remorseless hostility cut olf all intercourse with him. In 1613 the princess, Pocahontas, had developed into the maturer beauty of eighteen years. Captain Argall, Smith's ancient enemy, was 64 INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. making a voyage in search of supplies, when he learned that Pocahontas, instead of being with her father, the emperor, was living with the King Potowomek's people. It is not certainly known why she was away from home. There are reasons for thinking that she went to Potowomek, partly because her father suspected her of friendship to the English, and desired to remove her from their vicinity, and partly, because she herself was glad to escape from the scenes of torture and butchery which took place on the occasion of every capture of an Englishman. Another account is, that she was making a friendly visit on the occasion of an Indian f\iir. Argall resolved to capture her if possible, and force" Powhatan to ransom her by the release of his prisoners, the restoration of stolen property, and abundant gifts of corn. He resorted to a mean stratagem. Among the tribe whose guest she was, Argall found a low savage, named Jaba- zaw^s, to whom he offered the bribe of a copper kettle, to decoy her on board his ship. The scoundrel had a keen insight into his victim's character. Having no chance to play upon her curi- osity, because Pocahontas had seen many larger vessels, he instructed his wife to pretend her great desire to see one. Carefully planning for Pocnhontas to overhear them, the savage proceeded to beat his wife for her mock importunities. She cried lustily, and at last he told her that if Pocahontas would go aboard with her, she might go. The amiable girl, always glad to oblige others, fell into the snare. Once on board the ship, Argall decoyed her into the gun room, and locked her up, in order , to conceal from her the treachery of her own people. Jabazaws and his wife gleefully received their reward. Then Argall told Pocahontas she was his prisoner, and must be the means of making peace between the English and her father. At this announcement the cheat, Jabazaws, and his wife, cried louder than poor Pocahontas herself, finally, with many tears and embracings, taking leave of her. The meanness of the man Argall, who could thus take advantage of a young girl, a harha7ian^ forsooth, whose very life she had TEE LEGEXD OF P OWE AT AX. 65 risked again and again to help the English, is almost beneath the whip of scorn. This gallant gentleman took his prize to Jamestown, which she looked upon for the first time since Smith's departure, fuur years before. Messengers were dispatched to Powhatan, announcing the capture of his daughter and the requisite ran- som set on her head. English captives, stolen tools, captured guns, were to be restored, with much corn. Powhatan was greatly disturbed by this news. Pocahontas was still his faA'or- ite daughter. But it was a great sacrifice to give up the English weapons. Besides she had always inclined to aid the English, which was wrong. Whatever were the thoughts of the white- haired emperor, as this new sorrow burdened his heart, it was three months before he responded to the message. This delay was singular, and is hard to account for. It may have been caused by the struggle between private atTection for his daugh- ter and public duty to his country and people. At the end of three months, he sent back seven of his English captives, each armed with an unserviceable musket, and promised, on the release of his daughter, to give five hundred bushels of corn. This was promptly declined, and a demand made for the return of every captive, gun, and sword. Powhatan was so angered at this reply that he was not heard from for a long time. In the following Spring, an expedition of one hundred and fifty men took Pocahontas, and went up to Powhatan's seat. The emperor refused to see their messengers. The English then told Lis people they had come to receive a ransom for Pocahon- tas and restore her to liberty. To this the Indians replied with showers of arrows. A fight ensued. Forty houses were burned. Then a palaver was had, and a truce arranged till the following day. Meanwhile Pocahontas went ashore, and two of her brothers and some friends were permitted to see her. She welcomed them, but in a rather frigid way. She spoke little to any but her brothers, and told them plainly, that if her father loved her, he would not value her less than old INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. swords, axes, and gnus; that for her part, she preferred to remain with her captors, who treated her more kindly than her father, nnless he manifested his affection more actively. Her brothers were fond of her, and were glad to find lier gently treated. They promised to persuade the emijeror to make a peace. Two Englishmen, John Rolfe and one Sparkes, at once started to Powhatan's conrt to arrange a treaty. He haughtily refused to see them, but his brother, Opechancanough, intimated that a peace might be effected. ' ■ ■ But while these elaborate negotiations were working to patch up a cumbrous and prol)ably short-lived treaty, another power, with more skillful hands, Avas knitting a surer alliance. Poca- hontas, whose gentle and refined nature from the first seemed to yearn toward the civilization of the English, had changed greatly during her residence with them. Her tears and entreat- ies to be set free, at the time of her capture, are in marked con- trast with her indifference, at the interview with her brothers, toward her own people, and her willingness to remain with the English. The real reason for this was known only to a single one of her captors, Mr. John llolfe, a steady, industrious, and enterprising man, one of the best of the colony. He was a widower, his young wife having died. When he came in con- tact with Pocahontas, her charms of person and graces of char- acter filled him with an admiration tinged with emotion. Rolfe was a very religious fellow, and he made his Chris- tian duty to the untutored maiden the excuse for frequent calls, long conversations, and earnest persuasions to renounce her idol- atry, and adopt the true Christian religion. Love is a cunning fellow. He knows the foibles of human nature. He delights to masquerade long in the characters of duty, friendship, mutual improvement, pleasure, or religion, and then suddenly to throw aside his masque and startle his victims with the sight of his own true self. Thus it was that Master Rolfe kept assuring himself that his talks and persuasions with Pocahontas were merely done from a sense of duty ; and, as the girl slowly THE LEGEND OF POWHATAN. 67 yielded to his influence, until at last, just before her wedding, she renounced the religion of her fathers, and formally profess- ing her adoption of Christianity, was baptized and re-christened by the name of Rebecca, she too persuaded herself that she was animated wholly by the strength of Master Rolfe's argu- ments and the truth of his cause. When the expedition set out, of which the object was to restore Pocahontas to her people, Rolfe must have undergone great inward torment. lie resolved to ask the governor. Sir Thomas Dale, for permission to marry Pocahontas. Instead of speaking to Dale, whom he saw every day, Rolfe drew up a long letter, a sort of theological treatise, to him, and when he set out to interview Powhatan on the subject of the peace, left this curious document with a faithful friend, who was to deliver it to the governor in the author's absence. The letter is a glorious illustration of the perfectic/n of love's masquerade, his deft concealment of his real character from his victim. It began with solemn assertions that the writer was moved only by the Spirit of God; that he sought only to obey his conscience, as a preparation for the " dreadful day of judgment, when the secrets of all men's hearts shall be opened ;" that he was in no way led by " carnall affection," and that he sought only '' for the good of this plantation, for the honor of our countrie, for the glory of God, for my owne salvation, and for the converting to the true knowledge of God and Jesus Christ, an unbelieving creature, namely Pokahuntas." He went on to describe how long the subject had borne on his mind, how he had set before his mind the proneness of mankind to evil desires, how he had studied the rebukes of the Bible against marrying strange wives ; how the fearful struggle had kept up day and night between the powers of light and darkness ; how "besides the weary passions and suffering, he had daiely, hourely, yea, and in his sleep indured; even awaking him to astonish- ment, taxing him with remissnesse, and carelessnesse, refusing and neglecting to perform the duteie of a good Christian, pulling 68 INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. him by the eare and crying; why dost thou not indeavor to make her a Christian?" Still he proceeded with his foolish delusion. He said that the Holy Spirit often demanded why he was created, if not to labor in the Lord's vineyard. Here was a good chance for him. Besides all which were her apparent love for him, her intellig-ence and desire to be taught, her willingness to receive good impressions, "and also the spirituall, besides her owne incitements stirring me up hereunto." That these " incitements " and the rest had great influence over the writer of this remarkable love-letter is plain. "Shall I be of so untoward a disposition as to refuse to lead the blind in the right way ? Shall I be so unnatural as not to give bread to the hungrie, or uncharitable as not to cover the naked?" Such horrible wickedness was not to be thought of. He determined to sacrifice himself on the altar of duty. He could not close, however, without renewed protests that he was not influenced by his own desires or affections. In fact, one thinks he doth protest too much. He finishes, saying, "I will heartily accept of it as a godly taxe appointed me, and I will never cease (God assissting me) untill I have accomplished and brought to perfection so holy a worke, in which I will daily pray God to bless me, to mine and her eternal happiness." Governor Dale read this tedious missive, and no doubt saw the size of the joke. But, nevertheless, he could see the mar- riage would be a good thing for the colony, and lay the founda- tion for a lasting peace. He approved of it heartily, humoring Bolfe by giving his assent in the same style in which the let- ter was written, and, so far as we are informed, without wound- ing the susceptible heart of the widower by any facetious reflection on his cant and self-delusion. Word was sent to Powhatan, and he, too, seemed to approve of it. He was growing conservative in his old age, and he saw in the marriage a career suited to the tastes of his daughter as well as an assurance of long continued peace for his weary people. The expedition returned to Jamestown, where Poca- THE LEGEND OF POWHATAN. 69 hontas, as before remarked, formally amioimced her conversion to Christianity. This was really a good joke on Rolfe, for it demolished at one blovv' the entire fabric of mock reasoning, by which he justified his desire to marry Pocahontas. However, the question was not sprung. Preparations for the wedding went on merrily. Powhatan shortly sent down an old uncle of Pocahontas to represent him at the wedding and give the bride away. The ceremony was performed in the Jamestown Church, about the 5th of April, 1614. This marriage is justh^ cele- brated as being the basis for a peace with the Powhatans as long as Pocahontas lived. Other tribes, among them the Chickahominies, who are said to have had no king, but a rude sort of republican government, sent in their submission to this colony, which no longer had occasion for war. It is instructive to notice that the colony at this time aban- doned the communal system of property, because while all were fed out of the common store, some would shirk the labor, and even the most industrious would "scarcely work in a week so much as they would for themselves in a single day." The pros- perity of the colony was assured. Communism is the very soul of barbarism; individual property the earliest sign of civilization. The first time a thing occurs it is remarkable. The wedding of Rolfe and Pocahontas, famous as the first marriage of a white man with an Indian woman on this continent, recalls an incident which had transpired twenty-seven years before. This was the birth of a little waif known to history as Virginia Dare, the first white child born in America. It took place in 1587, in the unhappy colony at Roanoke, Virginia, founded under the auspices of Sir Walter Raleigh, whose transcendent genius more nearly apprehended the glorious destiny of America than that of any other man of the age. This little maiden was baptized when she was a week or two old. The scene was one of thrilling interest to the anxious group of spectators. That ceremony performed over the unconscious babe has been described with touching interest by every historian pf America. 70 INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. Well might it be. What a world drama has been and will be enacted on the new continent between the births of the first white child and of the last white child in America! But the history of little Virginia Dare closes with her baptism. Shortly after, her father, leaving his wife and child behind, went to England for food and help. When he returned no trace was to be found of the colony^ save the single word "Croatan" carved on a tree. Historians have speculated upon the fate of the lost colony of Roanoke and of Virginia Dare, but no satisfactory solution has ever been given of the mystery. Such benefits had flowed from the marriage of Pocahontas that good Governor Dale piously ascribing it to the Divine approval which rested on the conversion of the heathen, and reflecting that another daughter of Powhatan would form an additional pledge of peace, sent Hamor and the interpreter, Thomas Savage, to Powhatan, for the purpose of securing another daughter for himself. At the town of Matchcat, farther up the river than Werowocomoco, from which the emperor had removed on account of the proximity of the English, the visitors were received. The emperor seemed glad to see Savage, and invited him to his house. After a pipe of tobacco had been passed around, Powhatan inquired anxiously about his daugh- ter's welfare, " her marriage, his unknown son, and how they liked, lived, and loved together." Hamor answered that Rolfe was very well, and " his daughter so well content that she would not change her life to return and live with him, whereat he laughed heartily, and said he was very glad of it." Powhatan then desired to know the reason of the unex- pected visit. Hamor said his message was private, and he desired no one to be present. The emperor at once ordered the room cleared of all except the inevitable pair of queens who sat on either side of the monarch. As a propitiatory introduction to the subject, Hamor delivered a message of " love and peace," supplementing it with presents of coffee, beads, combs, fish- hooks, and knives, and a promise of the long-wished-for grind- THE LEGEND OF POWHATAN. ^71 stone, whenever Powhatan would send for it. Hamor then pro- ceeded to speak of the great reputation for beauty and attract- iveness which Powhatan's youngest daughter bore, of the desire of Pocahontas to have her sister's companionship, of Governor Dale's intention to remain permanent!}^ in Virginia, and his desire, in case the young lady proved to be all that was reported of her, to make lier his nearest companion, wife, and bed- fellow." Such an alliance, Hamor represented, would be an honor to all concerned, and would form a new bond of alliance and friendship. When Hamor had finished, the emperor gracefully acknowl- edged the compliment, but protested that his daughter had been three days married to a certain one of his kings. Hamor replied that this was nuthing, that the groom would readily relinquish her for the ample presents wdiich Governor Dale would make, and further, that the emperor might easily exert his authority to reclaim his daughter on some pretext. To this base proposition the old monarch made an answer, of which the nobility and purity might have put to shame the brazen Hamor. He confessed that his real objection was the love he bore to his dauoditer, who was dearer to him than his own life ; that thouodi he had many children, none delighted him as much as she ; that he could not live unless he saw her every day during the few remaining years of his life, which he could not do if she went to live with the English, as he was resolved never to put himself in their power by visiting them. He desired no other pledge of friendship than the one already existing in the marriage of his Pocahontas, unless she should die. m Avhich ca se he would give up another child. Finally, he urged with vehement and pathetic eloquence. " I hold it not a brotherly part for your king to endeavor to bereave me of my two darling children at once. Give him to understand that, if he had no pledge at all, he need not distrust any injury from me or my people. There hath been already too much of blood and war. Too many of my people and of his, have already fallen in our strife, and by 72 INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. my occasion there shall never be any more. I, who have power to perform it, have said it ; no, not though I should have just occasion offered, for I am now grown old and would gladly end my few remaining days" in peace and quiet. Even if the English should offer me injury, I would not resent it. My country is large enough, and I would remove myself farther from you. I hope this will give satisftiction to your king. He can not have my daughter. If he is not satisfied, I will move three days' journey farther from him, and never see Englishmen more." His speech was ended. The barbarian's hall of state was silent. The council fire, unreplenished, had burned low during the interview, and the great, crackling logs lay reduced to a dull heap of embers, fit symbol of the aged monarch who had just spoken ; within their midst still burned the glowing heart of fire, but more and more feebly, while over all the white and feathery ashes were weaving the shroud of death. Call him a savage, but remember that his shining love for his daughter only throws into darker shadow the infamous proposition of the civilized Englishman to tear away the three days' bride from the arms of her Indian lover, and give her to a man who had already a wife in England. Call him a barbarian, but forget not that, when his enemies hungered he had given them food. When his people were robbed, whipped, and imprisoned by the invaders of his country, he had only retaliated, and had never failed to buy the peace, to which he was entitled without money and without price. Call him a heathen, but do not deny that when he said that, if the English should do him an injury, he would not resent it, but only move farther from them, he more nearly followed the rule of the Master, of whom he was ignorant, than did the faithless, pilfering adventurers at the fort, who rolled their eyes heavenward and called themselves Christians. * In 1616 John Holfe and Pocahontas went to England, taking several Indians with them. Here Rolfe well-nigh got THE LEGEXD OF PO WHAT AX. 73 into trouble over his marriage. Tlie intelligent Kine James, the same who wanted his minister to procure him a flying- squirrel, because he was ^' so well affected to such toys," took it into his limited head that Rolfe, a private gentleman, by marrying into the imperial family of Powhatan, had committed high treason. The anointed " pedant was deeply offended, and insisted that E.olfe meant to claim the Virginia dominion as his wife's heritage, and have the crown descend to his pos- terity. His counselors succeeded with difficulty in showing him how far-fetched the notion was. The Lady Rebecca, as Pocahontas was called in England, received, for a little while, considerable attention. The aristocracy ventured to patronize her slightly on account of her rank. She was received by the king and queen, taken to the theaters, and called on by several of the nobility. Captain Smith, busy with other mat- ters, did not see her for some time, but either to help Pocahon- tas or draw attention to himself, wrote the queen a letter, in which he gave a brief and spirited account of the many kind- nesses which Pocahontas had bestowed on the colony, and earnestly requesting that she receive the voydl favor and atten- tion while in England. In a little while, however, Pocahontas seems to have been neglected. The novelty wore off. After the first weeks of her visit she was no longer spoken of as the wife of Rolfe at all. Either on account of the London smoke or the neglect of the Virginia company, she was staying at Branford. Smith relates the story of a sino:ular interview which he had with her here. After a modest salutation, she, without a word, turned her back to him. and passionately buried her face in her hands. At length she broke forth with pathetic reproaches, recalling the old scenes at the colony, and her sacrifices for the Enulish, how he had called Powhatan father" when he was a stranger in a strange land, yet how, now that their positions were reversed, he neglected her and objected to her calling him "father." She said that after his departure the English always 14: INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. told her he was dead, yet Powhatan had commanded those of her people that were with her to search for Smith, and find out whether he was living, because your countriemen will lie much." The rea- son of her conduct is obscure. Many have thought that Rolfe had told her Smith was dead, because she was resolved never to I marry to any one as long as he was alive. It is not im- possible that she had loved liim, and was deeply W grieved to find the trick which had been j)layed upon her. More 1 i k e 1 y s li e was homesick, and, grieved to find the English no longer paid her any attention, was deeply sensitive to Smith's neglect, in not visiting her earlier and renewing their old acquaintance. Among the Indians who accompanied Pocahontas was Toco- moco, her bi-other-in-law, who was sent by Powhatan to take the number of people in England, and bring an account of their strength and resources. When lie arrived at Plymouth he got him a long stick, and began io cut a notch in it for every person he met. But he soon wearied of the endless task, and threw away the stick. When he^ was asked by Powhatan on his return, how many Englishmen there were, he said : Count the stars in the sky, the leaver on the trees, and the sand on the sea-shore ; for such is the lumber of people in England." CAPTAIN JOHN SMITH. THE LEGEND OF POWHATAN. This same savage accidentally met Captain Smith in London, where their old acquaintance was renewed. He at once begged Smith to show him his God, king, queen, and prince, about whom Smith had told him so much. Smith put him off the best he could about showing his Grod, but told him he had already seen the king, and the others he should see when he liked. The Indian stoutly denied having seen the king, James not coming up to his notion of the ruler of such a people. When convinced that he had really seen the king, he said, with a melancholy countenance : You gave Powhatan a wdiite dog, which he fed as himself ; but your king has given me not a mouthful nor a present; yet I am better than your white dog." In May, 1617, Rolfe, who had been appointed secretary of Virginia, with his wife and child, prepared to return to America. They were on board their ship, which was detained a few days in the Thames by contrary winds. During this delay the lovely Pocahontas was taken ill, and, after an illness of three days, died, in a stranger's land. Thus ends one of the briefest and loveliest romances to be found in all literature. Amid the darkness of barbarism and savagery, bloomed the rare and delicate nature of Pocahontas, a wild rose in the rocky cleft of black precipices and gloomy mountains. She seemed born for a different sphere than that in which she w^as placed. The brutality of her people was wholly absent from her affectionate heart. She took naturally to the civilization which she so little understood. Whatever motives may have influenced her in her adoption of Christianity, it is on record that she ''lived civilly and lovingly" with her husband. From the first she had no fear of the English, going freely to their fort and on board their ships. Nearly every one in the colony had some favor, bestowed in the days of her frolicsome visits to Jamestown, for which to remember her. On all occasions she was their friend, supplying them with pro- visions, concealing them from her father, and aiding them to escape. Her influence over her father was unceasingly exerted 76 INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. in behalf of the strangers. Modern criticism has regarded some of the stories told of her as romances. But after disentangling the flower from all the weeds and mosses of legend which may have sprung up around it^ the beautiful, affectionate nature, the refined manners, and apt in- telligence of the Indian i)rin- cess, remain in all their lily- like freshness and fragrance. Her early death, though sad enough, was perhaps fortu- nate, both for her and for her history. As to herself, had 5^::' she lived, her keen inteUi- gence would have leai'iied to f understand more and more fully the difference between her })eople and the English^ a knowledge which would ,1 have brought only pain and J,.. sorrow to her loving heart, ■And as for her history, her early death has left us only her portrait in the perfect bloom of youth, a youth which has been made immortal by the pens of countless historians. In 1618 died the great Powhatan, "full of years and satiated with fightings and the delights of savage life." lie is a prominent character in the early history of our country, and well does he deserve it. In his prime he had been propoilion- ally to his surroundings, as ambitious as Julius Caesar, and not less successful. He had enlarged his dominions by conquest to many times their original size, and had spread the terror of his arms over a vast extent of country. He had many towns and residences, and over a hundred wives. In his government he was despotic and cruel. Offenders were beaten to death before' him, or tied to trees and torn limb from Umb^ or broiled to death on red-hot coals, POCAHONTAS. THE LEGEND OF POWHATAN. 77 His people had a sort of religion, with priests, temples, and images, but "the ceremonies seemed not worship, but propitia- tions against evil," and they appear to have had no conception of an overruling power or of an immortal life. Their notions of personal adornment were very decided, if not pleasing. Oil and paints were daubed all over the person. Their ears had large holes bored in them, in which were hung bones, claws, beads, "and some of their men there be who will weare in these holes a small greene-and-yellow coloured live snake, neere half a yard in length, which crawling and lapping itself about his neck, oftentimes familiarly he suffreeth to kiss his lips. Others wear a dead ratt tyed by the tayle." In his last days Powhatan much feared a conspiracy, between his brother Opechancanough and the English, to overthrow his government, to prevent which his diplomacy was carefully exer- cised. There is much that is pathetic in the close of his career^ his dominions overrun with strangers, his well-beloved daughter sleeping her last sleep in a foreign land, and himself, no longer opposing armed resistance to the English, which he was shrewd enough to see must in the long run result in the extermination of his people, but simply " moving farther from them." It would be unjust to the man, to whom we are indebted for the story of Powhatan and his lovely daughter, to close this account without referring briefly to his career after leaving Vir- ginia. He was forever after a hobbyist on America. He was always laboring to get up new expeditions, of which he should have command. Once he did go to New England, and as usual, met with thrilling adventures. But he was pursued by the same ill luck which had been his evil star. His ambitious plans were never fulfilled, or, if he did get men to invest in his enterprises, they always met with disaster and ruin. Smith had the great good fortune to be his own historian. He took care to tell his own story, and he told it well, making himself the center of every scene. He was a graphic writer, full of wit, and his pages, though crude in style and bungled in arrangement, are the most interesting chronicles of his time. INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. Smith was a prolific author. His first work was " The True Relation," written by him, while in America, narrating the history and condition of the colony, published in London, 1608. In 1612 he published his " Map of Virginia and Description of the Coun- try." This map shows that he had a fine eye for topographical outline. Other works were "A Description of New England," 1616; "New England's Trials," 1620; "The General Historie/' 1624, with three later editions. He wrote also "A Sea Gram- mar" and several other books, which went over the same ground of his own adventures and the history of the Jamestown colony. These books were written and published by him at his own expense. He distributed them gratuitously in large numbers, solely with a view to exciting interest about America, and help- ing him in working up his plans. Reading between the lines, we see a man of strong nature, full of conceit, of manners disagreeable because egotistical, impa- tient of opposition, and insufferably fond of talking about and magnifying his own adventures. Yet he was no ordinary char- acter. The very rashness and impulsiveness which he mani- fested in England made him fertile in expedients in fighting Powhatan. The very strength of his dictator-like intellect, which gained him the hate of the Jamestown colonists, whether of lower or equal rank, caused him to achieve success with the savages and keep the storehouse of the fort full of corn. His great energy expending itself on the one hobby of working up expeditions to America, no doubt, made him to some extent a nuisance in England, after he was discountenanced and insulted by the Virginia company. But that Smith was a smart man, of rare force and ingenuity, far ahead of his age in foreseeing the future greatness of America, and possessing executive ability of a high order, must be conceded. He came, in time, to regard him- self as the originator of all the discoveries and colonizations of his busy age, mentioning the Virginia colony as "my colony/' and in relating the story of an expedition, of which he was only a private in the rear rank, saying, "/ took ten men and THE LEGEND OF F OWE A TAX. SI went ashore," ordered the boats to be lowered," and so forth. His swaggering rhetoric brings a smile to the face of the reader. His latest and best biographer says : " If Shakespeare had known him, as he might have done, he would have had a character ready to his hand that would have added one of the most amus- ing and interesting portraits to his gallery. He faintly suggests a moral Falstaff, if we can imagine a Falstaff without vices." Smith was not only a good Churchman, but a good man. His private life, passed amid the roughest characters and surround- ings, was upright and pure. He was never heard to use an oath. In spite of his incessant efforts, by writing books, making speeches, and addressing letters with offers of his services, to colonization societies, Smith was compelled to remain a mere spectator of the rapid settlement of the New World. Though out of money and out of reputation, his buoyant spirits never sunk. He was a Micawber, always expecting something to turn up, or better yet, a Colonel Mulberry Sellers, who was never without a scheme with " millions in it." Hardship and disap- pointment made him prematurely old, if it did not make him unhappy. His last years were spent in poverty-stricken seclu- sion, a "prince's mind imprisoned in a pauper's purse," as was said of him by a friend. Fed by his " great expectations," he held up his head to the end. Almost his last act w^as to make his will in due form, pompously disposing to Thomas Parker^ Esq., of "all my houses, lands, tenements, and hereditaments whatsoever." They were located only in his fancy. When the instrument was duly drawn, he, who had written so many books, could only make his mark. The end had come. On June 21, 1631, being fifty-two years old, he passed away. He lived and died a bachelor. He was wedded to his love of adventure. While there is much about him at which to laugh, there is more which begets admiration and sympathy for him who called him- self, on the title-pages of his books, the " sometime Governor of Virginia and Admiral of New England." 82 INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. CHAPTEH IL THE TRIALS OF LA SALLE. OBERT CAVALIER DE LA SALLE is one of the loneliest characters of history. His life was a struggle between Will and Fate. He was a Frenchman, the descendant of a wealthy family of Rouen. While but a child his love of study, his dislike of amusements, his serious energy, caused his family to select for him a career in the Church. His education was care- fully attended to by the great 'SSociety of Jesus," of which he became a member. But while La Salle was at first attracted to the Jesuits by their marvelous discipline, their concentrated power, their unequaled organization, his strong nature, as he approached manhood, rebelled at the vast machine of which he was only a part. He found himself, not at the center, but at the circumference of power. He left them. By the laws of the order, the fortune left him by his father had become the property of the " Society." Impoverished, but ambitious, La Salle, a young man of twenty-three years, in 1666, turned his back on the splendors and achievements of France in the reign of Le Grand Monarque^ to seek his fortune among the wilder- nesses of America. His destination was Montreal. An association of priests called the Seminary of St. Sulpice, were the feudal proprietors of the entire region. The priests were granting out their lands on easy terms to any who would form a settlement. La Salle at once arranged for a large tract of land, eight miles above THE TRIALS OF LA SALLE. 83 Montreal, at the place now called La Chine. The location was exposed and dangerous, but eligible for the fur trade. Here he marked out a palisaded village, platted the land within the pali- sade into lots containing a third of an acre each, and without the palisade into forty-acre fields. These tracts he rented out for a small, annual rent to tenants. He built a comfortable house for himself, and a small fort. The little settlement of which he was the feudal lord grew and tlourished. At evening La Salle would look out uver the tranquil waters of Lake St. Lotiis, and as his imagination dvvelt on the lonely world stretching ever toward the sunset, the great purpose of its exploration took shape in his mind. The Tndians who came to trade with him told him of a oTcat river in llu' W est, but of its destination they were ignorant. The dream of the age. a passage to the South Sea. was realized, if tliis river emptied into the Southern or Pacific Ocean. So the resth\olitical faction composed of La Salle's enemies. These last were not asleep. The news of his discov- ery and his mammoth Indian town teased their jealousy and hate into a perfect frenzy. Their emissaries worked incessantly to induce the Iroquois to make war and destroy La Salle, who, they said, was combining the western Indians against the Five Nations. On the other hand, they spread rumors through the excitable throngs around Fort St. Louis that La Salle was keep- ing them there for the Iroquois to destroy them all at once. Reports were frequent that the Iroquois were coming. La Salle's situation was full of peril. He dared not leave Fort St. Louis to carry out his plans for traffic on the Missis- sippi, for if an attack should be made in his absence he would be denounced as the instigator of the Iroquois war. Yet the necessity for his departure grew stronger each day. Xo one but he could arrange to build the fort at the mouth of the Mis- sissippi, and bring vessels from France laden with articles of traffic for his savage allies. To meet the emergency, he sent letters to France, imploring a>ssistance. They were never heard from. He begged La Barre to send him supplies and re-enforce- ments. Xo answers were ever received. He weakened his 110 INDIAN TltAGEnilJS AND llOMANCl:S. little colony by .sending messengers to Montreal to procure supplies and bring them by canoes. The m_essengers were plundered of their cargoes by the Canadian governor and thrown into prison. La Salle, in the depths of the wilderness, was unaware of the governor's enmity. Again and again he wrote, describing the situation, and imploring that his men might be allowed to return with supplies. The only response was angry letters from his creditors, accusing him of every crime under heaven. There remained but a hundred pounds of powder in the fort. Should the Iroquois come, strong resistance was impossible. On receipt of La Halle's letters. La Barre wrote to the government of France that La Salle was a crack-brained adven- turer, bent on involving the Canadian colonies in a war with the Iroquois; that ho h;id set himself up as king; that he had robbed his creditors only to waste the ill-gotten gain in riotous living and in debauching the Indians ; that so far from serving the king, his sole object was private gain. These slanders reached the nlark. The king wrot^ back that '' the discovery of La Salle is utterly useless, and such enterprises should, in the future, be prevented." What a prophet was Louis XIV concerning the future of America ! Had he but known bet- ter, his New " France was most speedily to far surpass his "Old" France. La Barre, emboldened by the king's letter, seized all of La Salle's propert}^, declared his privileges for- feited, and dispatched an officer to supersede him at Fort St. Louis. He found only Tonty. La Salle had started for France. It was an opportune moment for La Salle when he appeared before the gold and ivory chair of state in which sat the small specimen of humanity, in high-heeled shoes and gaudy attire, who represented the sovereignty of France. A war with Spain was in progress. La Salle was smart. His great object was to get a fort and colony on the Mississippi. Instead of dwell- ing on its use in (controlling and developing traffic with the vast THE TRIALS OF LA SALLE. Ill interior, he held out the more glittering, but far less substantial, allurement that such a fort would be a basis for a descent on Mexico and the Spanish dominion. His geographical notions were wrong. Mexico was much farther off than he thought. But the king knew no better. The idea of wresting Mexico, with its rich mines of silver and gold from the indolent Span- iards w^ho guarded it, caught his eye. Feeling exerts a power- ful influence on conduct. He hated Spain. Any plan to hurt her was grateful to him. So La Salle was granted more than he asked. La Forest, La Salle's lieutenant, was dispatched to Canada with a royal reprimand for La Barre. He was also to resume possession of Fort Frontenac and Fort St. Louis. He was further ordered to march the four thousand warriors at the latter place, to the mouth of the Mississippi, to co-operate with La Salle in an invasion of Mexico. When his lieutenant received this latter order from La Salle, the latter must have nearly burst with inward laughter. It is the solitary joke in his stern career. It gives him a rank among the funny men of all ages. Gulli- ver's exploits are nothing in comparison with marching four thousand wild Indians, as unstable as water, belonging to a hun- dred wandering tribes, two thousand miles from their hunting- grounds; their women and children left behind at the mercy of savage foes ; their numbers so great that, without any pro- vision for supplies, they must starve on the way ; with no arms but bows and arrows, and no object but to invade a country of which they had never heard. But the wise simpleton of Ver- sailles saw nothing of the joke. What could be more natural? The idea delighted him. He gave La Salle four ships instead of one. Of these the Joly was the largest. A hundred soldiers, thirty gentlemen, a number of mechan- ics, besides the wives of some and a few girls who saw a cer- tain prospect of matrimony, embarked on this last expedition of Robert Cavalier De La Salle. The command was divided. Beaujeu, a high-tempered, but old and experienced naval officer, 112 INDIAN TiRAGt:t)im AND ROMANCES. was to command the ships at sea ; La Salle was to have entire control on land. This two-headed arrangement gave rise to no end of trouble. La Salle, always suspicious and secretive, found out that Beaujeu's wife was devoted to the Jesuits. His cold, impenetrable manner, confiding in none, counseling with none, haughty and reserved, would have exasperated a far less testy and excitable man than old Beaujeu. As it was, La Salle's colleague sputtered over with fury. Before they were out of the harbor, La Salle believed that Beaujeu was a traitor, in connivance with his enemies to ruin the expe- dition. Old Beaujeu, on his part, was furious that he, an experienced naval officer of high rank, should divide command with a man who has no experience of war except with sav- ages, who has no rank, and 7iever commanded any hody hut school- hoys " — a thrust at La Salle's school-teaching days, when he was wdth the Jesuits. Beaujeu wrote letters continually to the government, complaining of his ignominy. To these ebullitions of age, vanity, and temper the answers were curt enough. The two leaders quarreled — about the stowage of the cargo, about the amount of provision to be taken on board, about the destination of the expedition. Beaujeu believed that La Salle was not a sane man. It is not impossible that his terrible exposures and sufferings, his ceaseless struggles .with his cred- itors and enemies, his crushing disappointments had affected the poise of La Salle's mind. His universal distrust included even the faithful Tonty. On July 24, 1684, the little fleet spread its canvas. On the fourth day out the Joly broke a bowsprit. La Salle believed it to have happened by design. The ships put back to Rochelle to repair the damage. The wretched voyage lasted two months. La Salle was in miserable health. The disagreements between him and Beau- jeu grew continually worse. La Salle desired to put in at Port de Paix. Here he was to receive supplies and information from the French governor, who had orders to render all possible assist- ance to the expedition- Beaujeu, boiling with rage, managed to THE TRIALS OF LA SALLE. 113 run by the place at night and insisted on landing at a different place, Petit Gouare. No supplies were to be had here. Many of the men were sick from the intense heat and close confinement on shipboard. The smallest vessel, the one laden with stores, tools, and ammunition, had fallen behind. Two days passed, and instead of her arrival, word was brought that she had been cap- tured by pirates. The blow was terrific, and could not have fallen, had Beaujeu put in at Port de Paix. La Salle, eaten up with anxiety, became dangerously ill and delirious. In the extremity, Joutel, a gardener, who had joined the expedition, was his main reliance, and continued so till the end. He became the historian of the enterprise. While lying at this port, freed from the restraint of their leader s eye, the men engaged in the worst debauchery, contracting diseases which brought many to their graves. The captain of the Aimahle gave La Salle great uneasiness. To prevent treachery, he went on board the vessel himself. It was near New Year's, when, having entered the Gulf of Mexico, they discovered land. Every eye was strained to detect the mouth of the great river. At this point La Salle committed a fatal blunder. Having heard that the currents of the gulf set strongly to the eastward, he supposed he had not reached the Mississippi. In fact he had passed it. Day after day they sailed slowly to the west. No sign of the river appeared. A halt was called. The weather was stormy; the coast unknown and dangerous. The men were rapidly consuming the provisions. Beaujeu was irritable. Joutel says La Salle requested him to sail back in search of the river and that the naval commander refused to do it. Impatient of the restraint and anxious to assume the sole command. La Salle deter- mined to land his soldiers on the swampy shores and send them to search for the river by land. Joutel was placed in command. For three days the detachment pushed their way north- eastward through tropical forests and across lagoons. The men were constructing a raft to cross Matagorda Bay, when they dis- 114 INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. covered the ships which had been following along the coast. La Salle came ashore, and announced that this was the western mouth of the Mississippi. He ordered the ships to enter the^ narrow harbor. The Aimahle came first. La Salle was watch- ing her. Suddenly some men came running in from the forest reporting that two of their number had been carried off by the Indians. La Salle ordered instant pursuit. With a last anxiou^B look at the Aimahle, which was steering in the wrong direction to be safe, he started after the Indians. He had just come in sight of them when the report of a cannon was heard from the bay. The savages fell prostrate with fright. But the chill of a more deadly fear froze the blood in La Salle's veins. The gun was a signal of distress. The Aimahle, with her cargo of stores and utensils for the colony, had struck the cruel reef. Securing his men from the Indians, La Salle hastened back to the scene of either accident or treachery to save, if possible, the cargo. The small boat of the vessel was found to have been staved in. This looked suspicious and caused delay. A boat was sent from the Joli/. Some gunpowder and flour had been landed, when the wind rose. The breakers came rolling in, lifting the doomed vessel and hurling her, again and again, upon the rocks. The greedy waves were strewn with her treasures. La Salle's heart must have been broken. The circumstantial evidence that the captain of the Aimahle had wrecked his vessel on purpose Avas of the strongest character. The wretched com- pany encamped near the wreck behind a rough pile of boxes, bales, driftwood, and spars. The Indians were unmistakably hostile. They plundered the camp, fired the woods, and even killed two men. The colonists were nearly all sick. Five or six were dying every day. Beaujeu having accomplished his mission and landed La Salle at what he declared was the mouth of the Mississippi, set sail for France. Toward the last, the testy old sea-captain sympathized with La Salle. He, at least, had not proved treacherous, and they parted friends. The col- onists were left to their misery. It is to be remembered that 116 THE TRIALS OF LA SALLE. in the iinbappy compan}^ were women and girls. The colony liyecl in constant fear of the Spanish, who were patrolling the gulf in search of them. Two of the men deserted. Another was hung for crime. One of the best of the company was bitten by a snake and died. The most serious thing, however, which befell the colony was the discovery by La Salle that he was not at the mouth of the Mississippi. He knew not Avhere he was, only not on the river which was the source and object of all his Titanic toil. Unless tlie river could be found, and that speedily, his mighty undertaking was utterly and forever ruined. If it could be found, a good fort built, and communications established with Fort St. Louis, on the Illinois, something might yet be accom- plished. Unless this was done. La Salle felt that all his Her- culean labors were wasted, his life a ruin, and his dream of em- pire a bitter foll}^ The future Avas as black as midnight. A single star beam shone through the darkness. The little frigate Belle, a gift from the king to La Salle, was still safe. If the Mississippi could be found, this vessel might convey the colony and such stores as they had left to its banks. A spot was sought where protection could be had from the scorching sun. The industrious toiled. The friars got out their battered altar and crosses. A fort was built. The stoutest sank under this labor. Numbers also were being slowly consumed by diseases brought with them. La Salle's company was not the flower of France.'^ Many of his men had been professional street beggars. On the walls of the new Fort St. Louis," as La Salle called it, were planted eight cannon. In the absence of balls, they were loaded with stones and bags of bullets. When the wretched colonists were thus located. La Salle started on a journey of exploration. He was still dauntless, self-contained, energetic. His mighty sorrows may have shat- tered him. In his extremity his fierce temper only became more fractious, his suspicion more dark. He treated his men INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. Ill with more and more rigor and hauteur. He kept his o^\'n counsel more obstinately than ever. He was made of iron. He bent not one inch to the storm. His invincible intellect refused to bow to defeat. It insulted Fate, and hurled defiance at all the powers of destinj' and hell. The day of his departure was the last of October, 1685. His brother, Abbe Cavalier, just recovered from a long- illness, accompanied him with fifty men. It was March before they returned. They told a tale of suffering and disappointment. Some of the men had deserted, some were drowned, some snake bitten, some killed by India,ns. The Mississippi had not been found. This was not the Avorst. The Belle had been ordered to follow them along the coast. At a certain point in the journe}^ La Salle lost sight of her. Men were sent to search. They brought back no tidings. The day after La Salle reached the fort the last one of these detachments arrived. They had been more successful. The pilot of the Belle, while on shore, had been killed by Indians. Soon after this the crew got drunk. A wind arose; the vessel was clumsily handled; in five minutes all that was left of her Avas a mass of spars and splinters hang- ing on the rock-bound coast. In all his troubled career, the unfortunate La Salle had never met with a disaster so utterl}^ overwhelming a,nd irretrievable as this. With the loss of the Belle AA^as lost the only means of returning to France, or of planting a colony on the Mississippi. There Avas no longer any use to hunt for the river. If it Avere found the colony could never get there. To transport their cannon, forges, tools, and stores by land Avas preposterous. A man could not carry enough food to take him half-Avay. La Salle broke down. He Avas taken Avith another terrible attack of fever. For months he fought this foe as he had every other.. His sublime Avill rose superior to difficulty. His mind once more cleared. He determined to make his way to the Mississippi, force his canoe upward against its curre^it to the Illinois; thence from Fort St. Louis again to Canada and to France, Avhere he 118 THE TRIALS OF LA SALLE. would obtain succor. It was a journey of seven thousand miles. The imagination fails to compass the immensity of the undertaking. It surpassed the labors of Hercules. One April day, after mass and prayer, a little handful of men, with hatchets, kettles, guns, corn, and presents for the Indians, strapped to their backs, set out over the prairie on the mighty undertaking. La Salle alone knew its extent. He kept the secret locked in his own breast, or not a man would have accompanied him. The trusty Joutel remained in command at the fort. The strictest discipline was enforced. This was to divert the minds of the colonists from their terrible situation. Every one was compelled to work. Joutel says: "We did what we could to amuse ourselves, and drive away care. I encouraged our people to dance and sing in the evenings, for when M. de La Salle w^as among us pleasure was often banished. I tried to keep the people as busy as possible. I set them to making a small cellar to keep meat fresh in hot weather; but w^hen M. de La Salle came back he said it was too small. As he always wanted to do every thing on a large scale, he prepared to make a large one, and marked out the plan." Like poor La Salle's other plans, the one for this cellar proved too large to be prac- ticable. So it was never built at all. ~ ^ The situation of the colonists was practically hopeless. There was not one chance in a thousand that La Salle could really make his way across the wilderness of a continent inhab- ited by sleepless and bloodthirsty savages, to Montreal, and thence to France. Even if he reached France, from what resources could the disappointed and ruined adventurer draw the large sums necessary to equip a vessel and come to their relief? It was now nearly two years since they left Rochelle. La Salle had promised to conquer Mexico in a year! Yet La Salle's trip to France was their only hope. Located at the mouth of a Texan river, no ship would ever pass that way, unless some Spanish cruiser, seeking whom it might destroy. Still, that the colonists were not overwhelmed wdth despair, IXDIAX TRAGEDIES AXD EOMA^X!ES. 119 is shown by one Barbiers, who asked leave to marry one of the girls. Joutel held a solemn consultation w^ith the friars, and the two lovers were united. Shortly afterward a marquis begged the same privilege concerning another girl. Joutel, the young gardener, concerned at such an abasement of nobility, refused, and deprived the lovers of all communication with each other. Meanwhile great discontent became manifest. Duhant, the greatest villain in the company, declared that La Salle had left them to their fate, and would never return. One night a knocking was heard at the gate. It was La Salle. Out of twenty men only eight had lived to return. They had journeyed far, incurring almost every peril and dis- aster of which one can conceive. At last La Salle took sick. This delayed them tw^o months, and by exhausting their ammunition and strength, forced them to return to the fort. The colonists, of whom only forty-five remained, nun-mured loudly. La Salle had a heavy task to make them contented with the dreary weather-beaten palisade and fort. He was about to renew his effort to reach Canada, when he was attacked with hernia. His constitution seemed badly shattered. It was in January, 1687. before the start could be made. Joutel this time was to accompany his chief. La Salle made a farewell address, in an unusually kind, winning and hopeful manner. With heavy hearts. l)oth of those going and those remaining, the little band took up its slow march, followed by straining eyes, until it disappeared from view fore^'er. The company w^as full of discord. Liotal, the surgeon, had sworn revenge on La Salle for having on one occasion sent his brother on a trip, during which he was killed by Indians. Duhaut had long hated La Salle, and both men alike despised Moranget, La Salle's nephew. Several quarrels took »place. One day Duhaut, Liotal, Hiens, a buccaneer, Teissier, I'Archeveque, and Nika and Saget, two Indian servants of La Salle, w^ere out hunting buffalo. Having killed some, they sent word to the camp. Moranget and DeMarle were dispatched with horses, 120 THE TRIALS OF LA SALLE. which had been bought of Indians, to bring in the meat. When Moranget arrived he abused the men violently because the meat was not smoked properly, and quarreled fiercely with Duhaut because he claimed the marrow bones. Moranget ended by seizing them. It was too much. The men who might in France have lived and died respected citizens, embittered by disappointment, and crushed by disaster, were no longer men. They were wild beasts. That evening Duhaut and Liotal took counsel with Hiens, Teissier, and TArcheveque. A bloody plot was laid. The supper over, the pipes smoked, each man rolled himself in his blanket. Then the conspirators arose. Duhaut and Hiens stood with guns cocked, to shoot any who might resist. The surgeon stole forward, and, with hurried blows from an axe, clove the skulls of the sleeping Moranget, Nika, and Saget, the nephew, the friend, and the servant of La Salle. It was quickly done. Their victims lay weltering in pools of blood, while the night wind sighed through the lonely forest. The red demon of murder, which had entered the hearts of the conspirators, pointed with bloody finger at La Salle, six miles away. Hatred and self-preservation alike demanded his death. That evening Moranget had not returned, and La Salle seemed to have a presentiment of evil. He questioned Joutel closely as to whether Duhaut had any bad designs. Joutel knew nothing except that he had complained about being found fault with so much. La Salle passed an uneasy night. In the morning he borrowed the best gun in the party, and taking a friar for a companion and an Indian for his guide, started in search of the missing men. As he walked, he talked with the good friar, only "of piety, grace, and predestination; enlarging on the debt he owed God, who had saved him from so many perils, during more than twenty years of travel in America." "Suddenly," says the friar, "I saw him overwhelmed with a profound sadness, for which himself could not account. He was so moved I scarcely knew him." His approach was INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND IIOMANCES. 121 perceived by the murderers. Duhaut and the surgeon^ crouched in the long grass, with guns cocked. L'Archeveque remained in sight. La Salle called to him, asking where was Moranget. The man replied in a tone agitated but insolent, that he was strolling around somewhere. La Salle rebuked him, and con- tinued to advance. At that moment two shots were fired from the grass, and the great La Salle, the hero of a thousand exploits, dropped dead with a bullet in his brain. The toiler had found rest at last. The toilworn body was rudely thrown into the bushes, and became the food of vultures and of wolves. Thus, at forty-three years of age, fell one of the greatest explorers of all time. That he had grave faults is most true. He was often impractical. His movements seem sometimes the result of hasty and inconsiderate resolve. His fierce temper, and gloomy, unsocial nature brought on him the dislike of his men. He attempted too much. Yet, it is clear that he far surpassed his age in his foresight of the future of the Mis- sissippi valley. His dream of the interior empire was to what has really come to pass, as the first faint blush of dawn in eastern skies is to the blazing radiance of noon. If his material resources were too small for his vast undertaking, he possessed a will like that of a god. The vast and continuous stream of energy, proceeding for twenty years from the brain of La Salle, was superhuman. His sensibilities were weak or wholly wanting. His intellect and will place his name above that of every other explorer. It is impossible to find anywhere an equal for La SaUe's undertakings and efforts, his sufferings and toils. Yet for it all he received no reward save the bullet of an assassin. Like many another hero. La Salle was ignored and cast out by man- kind. Unfortunate in life, he was still unfortunate in death. His countless throng of enemies each made a stab at his mem- ory. The only tiling we, who enjoy the fruits of his terrific toil, can do for La Salle, is to accord him the praise of history. 122 THE TRIALS OF LA SALLE. We have said he was one of history's loneliest characters. It is true. He was and is a solitary of the solitaries. In life his lonely, retiring, secretive nature forced him, as he himself said, to abandon various employments in which, without it, he would have succeeded, and to choose a life more suited to his solitary disposition. We see him driven to the wilderness by his own solitariness. Still he was not enough alone. He shut out from his confidence even the handful of men with whom he traversed the silent and uninhabited forests of America. His was the solitude of genius. " Buzzing insects fly in swarms ; the lion stalks alone." He was separated from his nearest friend by fathomless abysses. Solitary in life, he is also solitary in his- tory. He can not be classed with nor compared to any other. His name is a star which belongs to no constellation. The Chevalier de La Salle is like no one but himself. His very greatness makes it so. After the murders, Joutel, and one or two companions, who had been faithful to their leader, expected nothing but death. The conspirators would never allow the witnesses of their crime to reach the settlements alive. But the way was strangely * cleared. The murderers fell out among themselves, and Hiens and his friends deliberately shot and killed Duhaut and Liotal. Thus these heralds of civilization instructed the savages in its lessons. Joutel and his friends were allowed to depart on condition of giving the murderers certificates of their innocence of the crime. They made their way to Fort St. Louis, on the Illinois, where the brave Tonty still held his own, and thence to Canada and France. When Tonty had learned that La Salle had landed on the shores of the gulf, he had gone to meet him. But though he explored the coast for sixty miles from the mouth, failed to find him. La Salle, at that moment, was seeking the fatal river in the plains of Texas. The brave Tonty remained for some years at Fort St. Louis trading in furs. The king finally ordered the post to be abandoned, and his subsequent career is unknown. IXDIAX T BAG ED IKS AMJ ROMAXCES. 123 The colony ou iho -nil' was left to its fate by Louis XIY. Ill his gorgeous pakces at Versailles, he turned an ear of stone to the account of Joutel concerning the unfortunates left behind. One day a Spanish ship, guided by one of La Salle's deserters, sought out the spot where the colony had been, intent on its destruction. But the destroyers found the place as silent as death. The weather-beaten palisade was out of repair. The roof of the store-house had tumbled in. The dismounted "can- non lay scattered around in the mire. The whole place had fallen into decay. Looking a little farther, the fierce Spaniards found a cluster of human skeletons, lying as if they had fallen there in death. Around the bony finger of one was a little ring. Its possessor had been a woman. Awed by the mystery of the place, the strangers were about leaving, when two men, apparently Indians, came up. The}' said the colony had been attacked by small-pox. Many had died. The rest were mur- dered by the Indians. The speakers were TArcheveque and Grrallet. They alone remained to tell the tale. They were made prisoners of war, and sentenced to a life imprisonment in a Spanish dungeon. The last of La Salle's colonies had disap- peared from the face of the earth! TORTURE OF A PRISONER BY THE IROQUOIS. i^EATH OF BRADDOCK. I 20 INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. CHAPTER III. ROGERS'S RANGERS, iMONG the colonial recruits raised for the Brit- ish army in the year 1755, after the awful defeat of Braddock, was Captain Robert Rogers, who was at the head of a small company of rough fellows from New Hampshire. He was over six feet high, physically the most pow- erful man in the army. He had been virtually 1)rought up in a hunters camp. From boy- hood he had, with gun, blanket, and kettle, some ammunition, and a little sack of parched corn, ranged the untrodden forests of New England and Canada in search of furs and game. He had slept with the savages in their wigwams, wrestled and gambled with their warriors, ogled their squaws, shot the rapids with them in their frail bark canoes, until the Indian character and methods hid no secret from him. When the recruits assembled at Albany, New York, General Johnson, knowing Rogers by reputation, employed him from time to time on important scouts. His head-quarters were at Fort William Henry, a new fort erected by the British at the southern extremity of Lake George. Taking four or five trusty men with him, he would proceed up the lake to a convenient point, hide the ca.noe in the rushes, and push his way through the forest, penetrating the sentry lines to the very camp of the enemy. At Crown Point, one of the French forts, his men, under cover of night, concealed FlOU ERS'S RA ngers. 127 themselves in the willows only three hundred yards from the fort. When morning dawned, Rogers, holding some bushes in his hand, crawled nearer. While making his reconnoissance, numbers of soldiers and Indians came out of the fort and engaged in drilling or shooting at marks so near that Rogers could not rejoin his men, nor could the latter retreat without discovery. As he lay behind a small log, a Frenchman left his companions and walked directly tow^ard the spot of con- cealment. Rogers sprang at him wdth his gun, offering quarter. The stranger, instead of submitting, whipped out a dirk, and made a quick lunge at Rogers, but the latter shot him dead. The report instantly gave the alarm. The Frenchmen ran to the spot where lay the bleeding corpse, but no sign was there of the hand which had done the deed. Tf Rogers and his men had suddenly evaporated, the mvster \ , understood only by themselves, could not have been more perfect. Soon after their safe return, with information of the enemy gained on the above scout. Rogers took thirty men and two small cannon in four bateaux, and, pushing down the lake, discovered the enemy in an open camp in the forest. Runners bore the information to Fort Henry asking for re-enforcements. The delay caused them to be discovered. The British moved forward to surprise the French, when they perceived a fleet of hostile canoes coming down the lake. No doubt a similar force was advancing by land to catch the British between tw^o fires. Rogers at once threw fifteen men into canoes to decoy the French within range of the tw o cannon. He steered as if mean- ing to escape. The French at once headed diagonally toward the shore, to cut him off. The stratagem succeeded. Tw^o cannon shots sunk as many canoes, and the remainder fled, pursued unsuccessfully by the entire force of British, who had swiftly embarked for the chase. In another scout, toward Fort Ticonderoga, Rogers and tw^o companions were discovered on the lake by the enemy. Deter- mined not to retreat, the scouts quickly assumed the guise of 128 INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND ROMANCES. fishermen. All day they coolly floated within gunshot of the French, dropping hook and line into the placid lake, and at even- ing actually sold their catch to the French. When night came on the adventurers pushed on toward their destination. Their reconnoissance at Ticonderoga, rendered diffi- cult by the intense cold, was about completed, except as to capturing a prisoner, when a snow began to fall. No art could conceal their trail, if they lingered till the snowfall ceased. So the return trip was hastily begun. B;^ Christmas Lake George was entirely frozen from shore to shore. But Rogers and his tireless woodsmen, instead of remaining idly in the warm quarters at the fort, equipped themselves with skates, and braved the win- VICINITY OF LAKE GEORGE. -|-^,^ tempest in many an expedition. Their success was unvarying. Taking a force of from ten to fifty men, on skates, Rogers would skim along the icy floor of the lake surface to a point opposite Ticonderoga or Crown Point, order his men to change their skates for snow shoes, and move swiftly to some ambush along the roads leading to the fort. Here they would lie in the snow, exposed to the bitter cold, sometimes for two or three days, with no shelter but a few pine boughs has- tily thrown together, and without a spark of fire, the smoke of which would instantly reveal them to the neigboring fort. Here they intercepted the sledges carrying fresh beef, venison, and corn to the fort, captured the drivers, and appropriated the provision. When they had caught several prisoners, they would glide into the French settlement, cut the throats of the cattle, set fire to the barns full of grain and to the houses of the villagers, and just as the red flames shot upward into the winter night, throwing their angry glare far across the whitened landscape, the mysterious and deadly Rangers would disappear in the forest as suddenly as they came. So valuable were the services of Rogers and his hardy nOGERS'S HANGERS. 129^ woodsmen, that, in the spring of 1756, he received a special commission from the commander-in-chief to raise an independ- ent corps of experienced foresters, men whom he was to choose himself, of the most approved courage and fidelity, and of the greatest physical inurement to exposure. The corps was to be known as RoaERS s Raxoers, the men receiving the pay of regular soldiers, but carrying on warfare as scouts in their own brave fashion. This famous corps became the right arm of the British troops. Their official instructions were " to use their best endeavors to distress the French and their allies, by sacking, burning, and destroying their houses, barns, barracks, canoes, bateaux, etc., and by killing their cattle of every kind ; and at all times to endeavor to destroy their convoys of provis- ion, by land and water, in every part of the country." On the way to Fort Henry, with his new Rangers, Rogers made an elaborate scout around Crown Point. After killing large numbers of cattle, the tongues of which were carefully removed for the Rangers' use, they were discovered and closely pursued by an overwhelming force of French and Indians. In this emergency, Rogers executed a masterly maneuver. Appoint- ing a rendezvous at a distant point on the lake shore, the Ran- gers suddenly separated, every man taking his own course. Where there had been five minutes before a stout body of men, the enemy found no one. The Rangers had dispersed and left only thin air. From this point on, their history is a succession of thrilling and successful exploits, of which we may only take an occasional glimpse. Not a week passed without some daring scout or victory. The Rangers only had to go out in order to catch a net full of birds, as they called their prisoners. These Rogers wonld examine separately and with great care, to see if their stories agreed, concerning the strength, movements, plans, supplies, and situation of the enemy. Keen and saga- cious in these examinations, able at a glance to separate the truth from falsehood, and wonderfully skillful in reading character, Rogers kept the British head-quarters more accurately posted 180 INDIAN TRAGEDIES AND R03IANCES. with regard to the enemy than were the French and Indian coiniiianders themselves. From time to time, during the war, the '^Rangers" were gradually increased from their original strength of sixty-two men, to more than a thousand. One night in July, 1756, while on a lengthy scout, the Rangers prepared to attack a French schooner, lying one mile from the lake shore. Just then two lighters, laden with pro- vision and strongly guarded, came in sight, and made for the shore as if to encamp, it being about ten o'clock at night. As they drew close to land, the Rangers fired from the forest, and Rogers offered quarter to the enemy. The latter, however, put about, and made every etfort to reach the opposite shore. Before they reached it the terrible Rangers had made prisoners of the entire party, and sunk and destroyed both cargoes, con- sisting of wheat, flour, wine and brandy. At this time the French were offering the Indians sixty francs for every English scalp, and prisoners were sold in Canada for sixty crowns. Rogers's first-lieutenant was John Stark, afterwards major-gen- eral of the American army in the Revolution. The fall and winter of 1756 were busily employed in harass- ing the enemy in the neighborhood of Lake George. On the 21st of January, 1757, Rogers had a company of eighty men with him, equipped with skates and snow-shoes. They were encamped three miles from the lake, on elevated ground, near Ticonderoga, from which tliey commanded a view of the snowy landscape for many miles. Far off on the glittering ice, they saw a small object moving across the lake. The keen eye of Rogers pronounced it to be a sled laden with provision. Lieu- tenant Stark set out with ten men to head it off, while Rogers and the others moved swiftly to intercept the retreat. Soon after Stark had departed, Rogers detected ten other sleds following the first. It was too late to warn Stark of the fact. The latter struck out for the first sled, and the other sleds, still at a distance, discovering him, instantly put about. Pursuit was the only thing possible. The sleds were ROGERS'S RANGEUS. 131 made of a long Ijoard. turned up in front, and with high racks at the side and end to hohl the load. They were as light as egg-shells, and drawn each by two horses, rough shod, and. urged to the to|i of their speed by relentless drivers, sped over the ice with tln^ \ elocity of the wind. Quick as thought, Rogers's men clapped on their skates and began the chase. The nearest sleds were a half a mile away. It was a race between swift and powerful horses and the swiftest skaters in the world. On flew the foaming horses, their manes flying and eyeballs strained, scattering showers of ice as their ponderous feet dug into the glittering surface. Wildly the hoarse drivers shouted and plied their rawhide Lishes upon the reeking steeds. Behind them came the shaggy and powerful Rangers, seeming as they whirled over the ringing ice like superhuman creatures. The pursuers had the shorter path. The sleds must cross it. Whoever reached the intersection first would win the deadly race. As the steel of the pursuers" skates flashed in the sunlight, it could be seen that they were gaining. Stark and his men ha