AN ADVENTURE IN THE WOODS.—REGINALD BRANDON MAKES THE ACQUAINTANCE OF
AN INDIAN CHIEF.
It was a bright morning in April; the robin was beginning his early
song, the woodpecker darted his beak against the rough bark, and the
squirrel hopped merrily from bough to bough among the gigantic trees of
the forest, as two hunters followed a winding path which led to a ferry
across the Muskingum river.
One was a powerful athletic young man, with a countenance strikingly
handsome, and embrowned by exercise and exposure: his dress was a
hunting shirt, and leggings of deer–skin; his curling brown locks
escaped from under a cap of wolf–skin; and his mocassins, firmly
secured round the ankle, were made from the tough hide of a bear: he
carried in his hand a short rifle of heavy calibre, and an ornamented
couteau–de–chasse hung at his belt. His companion, lower in stature,
but broad, sinewy, and weather–beaten, seemed to be some fifteen or
twenty years the elder: his dress was of the same material, but more
soiled and worn; his rifle was longer and heavier; and his whole
appearance that of a man to whom all inclemencies of season were
indifferent, all the dangers and hardships of a western hunter’s life
familiar; but the most remarkable part of his equipment was an enormous
axe, the handle studded with nails, and the head firmly riveted with
iron hoops.
“Well, Master Reginald,” said the latter; “we must hope to find old
Michael and his ferry–boat at the Passage des Rochers, for the river is
much swollen, and we might not easily swim it with dry powder.”
“What reason have you to doubt old Michael’s being found at his post?”
said Reginald: “we have often crossed there, and have seldom found him
absent.”
“True, master; but he has of late become very lazy; and he prefers
sitting by his fire, and exchanging a bottle of fire–water with a
strolling Ingian for half a dozen good skins, to tugging a great
flat–bottomed boat across the Muskingum during the March floods.”
“Baptiste,” said the young man, “it grieves me to see the reckless
avidity with which spirits are sought by the Indians; and the violence,
outrage, and misery which is the general consequence of their
dram–drinking.”
“Why you see, there is something very good in a cup of West Ingy rum.”
Here Baptiste’s hard features were twisted into a grin irresistibly
comic, and he proceeded: “It warms the stomach and the heart; and
the savages, when they once taste it, suck at a bottle by instinct,
as natural as a six–weeks’ cub at his dam. I often wonder, Master
Reginald, why you spoil that fine _eau de vie_ which little Perrot puts
into your hunting flask, by mixing with it a quantity of water! In my
last trip to the mountains, where I was first guide and turpret[2],
they gave me a taste now and then, and I never found it do me harm; but
the nature of an Ingian is different, you know.”
“Well, Baptiste,” said Reginald, smiling at his follower’s defence of
his favourite beverage; “I will say that I never knew you to take more
than you could carry; but your head is as strong as your back, and you
sometimes prove the strength of both.”
The conversation was suddenly interrupted by the report of Reginald’s
rifle, and a grey squirrel fell from the top of a hickory, where he
was feasting in fancied security. Baptiste took up the little animal,
and having examined it attentively, shook his head gravely, saying,
“Master Reginald, there is not a quicker eye, nor a truer hand in the
territory, but—“
As he hesitated to finish the sentence, Reginald added, laughing,
“but—but—I am an obstinate fellow, because I will not exchange my
favourite German rifle, with its heavy bullet, for a long Virginia
barrel, with a ball like a pea; is it not so, Baptiste?”
The guide’s natural good–humour struggled with prejudices which, on
this subject, had been more than once wounded by his young companion,
as he replied, “Why, Master Reginald, the deer, whose saddle is on my
shoulder, found my pea hard enough to swallow; and look here, at this
poor little vermint, whom you have just killed,—there is a hole in
his neck big enough to let the life out of a grisly bear; you have hit
him nearly an inch further back than I taught you to aim before you
went across the great water, and learnt all kinds of British and German
notions!”
Reginald smiled at the hunter’s characteristic reproof, and replied, in
a tone of kindness, “Well, Baptiste, all that I do know of tracking a
deer, or lining a bee, or of bringing down one of these little vermint,
I learnt first from you; and if I am a promising pupil, the credit is
due to Baptiste, the best hunter in forest or prairie!”
A glow of pleasure passed over the guide’s sunburnt countenance; and
grasping in his hard and horny fingers his young master’s hand, he
said, “Thank’ee, Master Reginald; and as for me, though I’m only a poor
‘Coureur des bois,’[3] I a’n’t feared to back my pupil against any man
that walks, from Dan Boone, of Kentucky, to Bloody–hand, the great
war–chief of the Cayugas.”
As he spoke, they came in sight of the river, and the blue smoke
curling up among the trees showed our travellers that they had not
missed their path to Michael’s log–house and ferry. “What have we
here?” exclaimed Baptiste, catching his companion by the arm; “’tis
even as I told you; the old rogue is smoking his pipe over a glass
of brandy in his kitchen corner; and there is a wild–looking Indian
pulling himself across with three horses in that crazy batteau, almost
as old and useless as its owner!”
“He will scarcely reach the opposite bank,” said Reginald; “the river
is muddy and swollen with melted snow, and his horses seem disposed to
be unquiet passengers.”
They had now approached near enough to enable them to distinguish the
features of the Indian in the boat: the guide scanned them with evident
surprise and interest; the result of which was, a noise which broke
from him, something between a grunt and a whistle, as he muttered,
“What can have brought _him_ here?”
“Do you know that fine–looking fellow, then?” inquired Reginald.
“Know him, Master Reginald—does Wolf know Miss Lucy?—does a bear
know a bee tree? I should know him among a thousand red–skins, though
he were twice as well disguised. Tête–bleu, master, look at those wild
brutes how they struggle; he and they will taste Muskingum water before
long.”
While he was speaking one of the horses reared, another kicked
furiously, the shallow flat boat was upset, and both they and the
Indian fell headlong into the river. They had been secured together
by a “laryette,” or thong of hide, which unfortunately came athwart
the Indian’s shoulder, and thus he was held below the water, while the
struggles of the frightened animals rendered it impossible for him to
extricate himself. “He is entangled in the laryette,” said the guide;
“nothing can save him,” he added in a grave and sadder tone. “’Tis a
noble youth, and I would have wished him a braver death! What are you
doing, Master Reginald?—are you mad? No man can swim in that torrent.
For your father’s sake—“
But his entreaties and attempts to restrain his impetuous companion
were fruitless, for Reginald had already thrown on the ground his
leathern hunting shirt, his rifle, and ammunition; and shaking off the
grasp of the guide as if the latter had been a child, he plunged into
the river, and swam to the spot where the feebler struggles of the
horses showed that they were now almost at the mercy of the current.
When he reached them, Reginald dived below the nearest, and dividing
the laryette with two or three successful strokes of his knife, brought
the exhausted Indian to the surface. For a moment, he feared that he
had come too late; but on inhaling a breath of air, the red–skin seemed
to regain both consciousness and strength, and was able in his turn to
assist Reginald, who had received, when under water, a blow on the
head from the horse’s hoof, the blood flowing fast from the wound.
Short but expressive was the greeting exchanged as they struck out
for the bank, which one of the horses had already gained: another was
bruised, battered, and tossed about among some shelving rocks lower
down the river; and the third was being fast hurried towards the same
dangerous spot, when the Indian, uttering a shrill cry, turned and swam
again towards this, his favourite horse, and by a great exertion of
skill and strength, brought it to a part of the river where the current
was less rapid, and thence led it safely ashore.
These events had passed in less time than their narration has occupied:
and the whole biped and quadruped party now stood drenched and dripping
on the bank. The two young men gazed at each other in silence, with
looks of mingled interest and admiration: indeed, if a sculptor had
desired to place together two different specimens of youthful manhood,
in which symmetry and strength were to be gracefully united, he could
scarcely have selected two finer models: in height they might be about
equal; and though the frame and muscular proportions of Reginald were
more powerful, there was a roundness and compact knitting of the
joints, and a sinewy suppleness in the limbs of his new acquaintance,
such as he thought he had never seen equalled in statuary or in life.
The Indian’s gaze was so fixed and piercing, that Reginald’s eye
wandered more than once from his countenance to the belt, where his
war–club was still suspended by a thong, the scalp–knife in its sheath,
and near it a scalp, evidently that of a white man, and bearing the
appearance of having been recently taken.
With a slight shudder of disgust, he raised his eyes again to the
chiselled features of the noble–looking being before him, and felt
assured that though they might be those of a savage warrior, they
could not be those of a lurking assassin. The Indian now moved a step
forward, and taking Reginald’s hand, placed it upon his own heart,
saying distinctly in English, “My brother!”
Reginald understood and appreciated this simple expression of gratitude
and friendship; he imitated his new friend’s action, and evinced, both
by his looks and the kindly tones of his voice, the interest which, to
his own surprise, the Indian had awakened in his breast.
At this juncture they were joined by the guide, who had paddled himself
across in a canoe that he found at the ferry, which was two hundred
yards above the spot where they now stood. At his approach, the young
Indian resumed his silent attitude of repose; while, apparently
unconscious of his presence, Baptiste poured upon his favourite a
mingled torrent of reproofs and congratulations.
“Why, Master Reginald, did the mad spirit possess you to jump into the
Muskingum, and dive like an otter, where the water was swift and dark
as the Niagara rapids! Pardie, though, it was bravely done! another
minute, and our red–skin friend would have been in the hunting–ground
of his forefathers. Give me your hand, master; I love you better
than ever! I had a mind to take a duck myself after ye; but thought,
if bad luck came, I might serve ye better with the canoe.” While
rapidly uttering these broken sentences, he handed to Reginald the
hunting–shirt, rifle, and other things, which he had brought over in
the canoe, and wrung the water out of his cap, being all the time in
a state of ill–dissembled excitement. This done, he turned to the
young Indian, who was standing aside, silent and motionless. The guide
scanned his features with a searching look, and then muttered audibly,
“I knew it must be he.”
A gleam shot from the dark eye of the Indian, proving that he heard and
understood the phrase, but not a word escaped his lips.
Reginald, unable to repress his curiosity, exclaimed, “Must be who,
Baptiste? Who is my Indian friend—my brother?”
A lurking smile played round the mouth of the guide, as he said in a
low tone to the Indian, “Does the paint on my brother’s face tell a
tale? Is his path in the night? Must his name dwell between shut lips?”
To this last question the Indian, moving forward with that peculiar
grace and innate dignity which characterised all his movements,
replied, “The War–Eagle hides his name from none: his cry is heard from
far, and his path is straight: a dog’s scalp is at his belt!” Here he
paused a moment; and added, in a softened tone, “But the bad Spirit
prevailed: the waters were too strong for him; the swimming–warrior’s
knife came; and again the War–Eagle saw the light.”
“And found a brother—is it not so?” added Reginald.
“It is so!” replied the Indian: and there was a depth of pathos in the
tone of his voice as he spoke, which convinced Reginald that those
words came from the heart.
“There were three horses with you in the bac,” said the guide: “two are
under yonder trees;—where is the third?”
“Dead, among those rocks below the rapids,” answered War–Eagle,
quietly. “He was a fool, and was taken from a fool, and both are now
together;” as he spoke he pointed scornfully to the scalp which hung at
his belt.
Reginald and Baptiste interchanged looks of uneasy curiosity, and then
directing their eyes towards the distant spot indicated by the Indian,
they distinguished the battered carcass of the animal, partly hid by
the water, and partly resting against the rock, which prevented it from
floating down with the current.
The party now turned towards the horses among the trees; which, after
enjoying themselves by rolling in the grass, were feeding, apparently
unconscious of their double misdemeanor, in having first upset the
bac, and then nearly drowned their master by their struggles in the
water. As Reginald and his two companions approached, an involuntary
exclamation of admiration burst from him.
“Heavens, Baptiste! did you ever see so magnificent a creature as that
with the laryette round his neck? And what a colour! it seems between
chestnut and black! Look at his short, wild head, his broad forehead,
his bold eye, and that long silky mane falling below his shoulder!
Look, also, at his short back and legs! Why, he has the beauty of a
barb joined to the strength of an English hunter!”
It may be well imagined that the greater portion of this might have
been a soliloquy, as Baptiste understood but few, the Indian none, of
the expressions which Reginald uttered with enthusiastic rapidity.
Both, however, understood enough to know that he was admiring the
animal, and both judged that his admiration was not misplaced.
Our hero (for so we must denominate Reginald Brandon) approached to
handle and caress the horse; but the latter, with erect ears and
expanded nostrils, snorted an indignant refusal of these civilities
and trotted off, tossing high his mane as if in defiance of man’s
dominion. At this moment, the War–Eagle uttered a shrill, peculiar cry,
when immediately the obedient horse came to his side, rubbing his head
against his master’s shoulder, and courting those caresses which he had
so lately and so scornfully refused from Reginald.
While the docile and intelligent animal thus stood beside him, a sudden
ray of light sparkled in the Indian’s eye, as with rapid utterance, not
unmingled with gesticulation, he said, “The War–Eagle’s path was toward
the evening sun; his tomahawk drank the Camanchee’s blood; the wild
horse was swift, and strong, and fierce; the cunning man on the evening
prairie said he was _Nekimi_[4],—‘the Great Spirit’s angry breath;’
but the War–Eagle’s neck–bullet struck—“
At this part of the narrative, the guide, carried away by the
enthusiasm of the scene described, ejaculated, in the Delaware tongue,
“That was bravely done!”
For a moment the young Indian paused; and then, with increased
rapidity and vehemence, told in his own language how he had captured
and subdued the horse; which faithful creature, seemingly anxious
to bear witness to the truth of his master’s tale, still sought and
returned his caresses. The Indian, however, was not thereby deterred
from the purpose which had already made his eye flash with pleasure.
Taking the thong in his hand, and placing it in that of Reginald, he
said, resuming the English tongue, “The War–Eagle gives Nekimi to his
brother. The white warrior may hunt the mastoche[5], he may overtake
his enemies, he may fly from the prairie–fire when the wind is strong:
Nekimi never tires!”
Reginald was so surprised at this unexpected offer, that he felt
much embarrassed, and hesitated whether he ought not to decline the
gift. Baptiste saw a cloud gathering on the Indian’s brow, and said
in a low voice to his master, in French, “You must take the horse; a
refusal would mortally offend him.” Our hero accordingly accompanied
his expression of thanks with every demonstration of satisfaction
and affection. Again War–Eagle’s face brightened with pleasure; but
the effect upon Nekimi seemed to be very different, for he stoutly
resisted his new master’s attempts at approach or acquaintance,
snorting and backing at every step made by Reginald in advance.
“The white warrior must learn to speak to Nekimi,” said the Indian,
quietly; and he again repeated the short, shrill cry before noticed.
In vain our hero tried to imitate the sound; the horse’s ears remained
deaf to his voice, and it seemed as if his new acquisition could prove
but of little service to him.
War–Eagle now took Reginald aside, and smeared his hands with some
grease taken from a small bladder in his girdle, and on his extending
them again towards the horse, much of the fear and dislike evinced by
the latter disappeared. As soon as the animal would permit Reginald
to touch it, the Indian desired him to hold its nostril firmly in his
hand, and placing his face by the horse’s head, to look up steadfastly
into its eye for several minutes, speaking low at intervals to accustom
it to his voice: he assured him that in a few days Nekimi would through
this treatment become docile and obedient.