[Illustration: The battle was now on in all its fury.—_Page 287._]
Colonial Series
TRAIL AND TRADING POST
OR
THE YOUNG HUNTERS OF THE OHIO
BY
EDWARD STRATEMEYER
Author of “With Washington in the West,” “American Boys’ Life of William
McKinley,” “Old Glory Series,” “Pan-American Series,” “Dave Porter
Series,” etc.
_ILLUSTRATED BY J. W. KENNEDY_
[Illustration]
BOSTON
LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
Published August, 1906
COPYRIGHT, 1906, BY LOTHROP, LEE & SHEPARD CO.
_All rights reserved_
TRAIL AND TRADING POST
Norwood Press
BERWICK & SMITH CO.
Norwood, Mass.
U. S. A.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PREFACE
“Trail and Trading Post” is a complete story in itself, but forms the
sixth and last volume of a line known under the general title of
“Colonial Series.”
As I have mentioned before, when I started this series I had in mind to
write not more than three volumes, telling of colonial times during the
war between France and England for the possession of Canada and the
territory bordering the Great Lakes. The first book, entitled “With
Washington in the West,” told of the disastrous Braddock campaign
against Fort Duquesne; the second, called “Marching on Niagara,” gave
many of the particulars of General Forbes’s advance against the same
French stronghold and likewise the particulars of the advance of
Generals Prideaux and Johnson against Fort Niagara; while the third
volume, “At the Fall of Montreal,” told of the heroic fighting of
General Wolfe at Quebec, and that last contest which brought this
long-drawn struggle to a close.
The war with France was now over, but the Indians were very bitter
against the English, and in a fourth volume, called “On the Trail of
Pontiac,” were given the particulars of how that noted red warrior
formed a conspiracy among a number of tribes to exterminate the English.
The first conspiracy failed to come to a head, but Pontiac was not
disheartened, and in a fifth volume, “The Fort in the Wilderness,” were
related how the warriors under him laid siege to Fort Detroit and Fort
Pitt, and how the English under Colonel Bouquet won the bloody battle of
Bushy Run,—the last regular contest with the red men for some years to
come.
With the Indian struggle at an end, the English were more eager than
ever to push forward to the west, to establish trading posts and
settlements, and it is with this movement that the present volume
concerns itself. The advance of the whites was watched with hatred by
the Indians, who lost no opportunity to do them injury. Among those to
push onward, to the fertile country bordering the Ohio River, were our
old friends, the Morrises—and what they did to make our glorious country
what it is to-day I leave the pages which follow to relate.
In closing this series I wish to thank the many thousands who have shown
their appreciation of my efforts to amuse and instruct them. In penning
the volumes I have endeavored to be as accurate historically as
possible, and I trust the perusal will do my young readers much good.
EDWARD STRATEMEYER.
_Independence Day, 1906._
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. A GLIMPSE OF THE PAST 1
II. A BUFFALO AND A BEAR 9
III. DAVE AND THE INDIAN 18
IV. TAKEN BY SURPRISE 28
V. THE FLIGHT TO THE RIVER 37
VI. BACK TO THE FORT 46
VII. THE START FOR THE EAST 56
VIII. THE MASSACRE OF A PACK-TRAIN 65
IX. UNDER THE CLIFF 75
X. BARRINGFORD AS A SCOUT 85
XI. IN WHICH WHITE BUFFALO APPEARS 95
XII. HOME ONCE MORE 105
XIII. AN OLD ENEMY APPEARS 115
XIV. A FIGHT WITH A WOLVERINE 125
XV. WOLVES, AND A SNOWSTORM 135
XVI. SAVED BY A WINDSTORM 145
XVII. THE JOURNEY TO THE TRADING POST 155
XVIII. RUNNING INTO A TRAP 164
XIX. THE SHOOTING CONTEST 174
XX. ANOTHER LONG JOURNEY 184
XXI. A NEW MOVE 194
XXII. A FIGHT AMONG WILD BEASTS 204
XXIII. THE RESCUE OF THE STRANGER 214
XXIV. SNOWBOUND ON THE TRAIL 225
XXV. CRUSHING NEWS 234
XXVI. BY WAY OF THE TUNNEL 244
XXVII. HOLDING THE TRADING POST 254
XXVIII. IN WHICH A BATTERING RAM IS USED 264
XXIX. FROM ENEMIES TO FRIENDS 274
XXX. FOR LIFE OR DEATH 285
XXXI. DAYS OF PEACE—CONCLUSION 297
ILLUSTRATIONS
The battle was now on in all its fury (page 287) _Frontispiece_
PAGE.
Both were now getting ready to renew the contest 15
He glanced up, saw his dire peril, and let himself drop 49
“Boka must kill both before either awakens,” murmured
the Indian 77
“I think we had better take turns watching,” said Henry 147
“A bull’s-eye for Henry Morris!” 176
The old frontiersman swept through the opening 258
Bevoir pitched headlong into the smoldering campfire 298
TRAIL AND TRADING POST
CHAPTER I
A GLIMPSE OF THE PAST
“If we can only get that buffalo, Henry, it will be a feather in our
cap.”
“Right you are, Dave. But the animal may be miles and miles away by this
time. As you know, they can run a long distance when they are
frightened.”
“Oh, yes, I know that well enough,” answered Dave Morris, as he rested
for a moment on the paddle he had been using. “I haven’t forgotten the
buffalo that once knocked our tent flat and ran away.”
“And I haven’t forgotten how I went after him and nearly lost my life
tumbling over the rocks and down the big hill,” added Henry. “I can tell
you, I don’t want another such experience!”
“Do you think the buffalo went around the head of the lake?”
“He was headed that way—the last I saw of him. Let us paddle up to the
brook and go ashore. If the tracks are there we can follow them: if not,
I reckon we’ll have to give up the hunt and content ourselves with some
small game.”
“You don’t suppose that there are any unfriendly Indians around,”
resumed Dave Morris, after a few minutes of silence, during which time
both young hunters applied themselves to the paddles of the canoe they
occupied. “I’ve had enough of fighting to last me for a long time to
come.”
“There is really no telling about that, the redskins are so treacherous.
Down at the fort they seem to think the district for fifty miles around
is clear, but Sam Barringford told me to keep my eyes peeled—that there
is no telling yet what may happen. The war is over, but Pontiac isn’t
dead, and neither is Moon Eye, and a lot more of the other chiefs.”
“Don’t mention Moon Eye to me,” said Dave Morris, with a shrug of his
broad shoulders. “That Indian will never forgive me for escaping from
him with Nell and the twins. I suppose he’d give a whole lot to get his
hands on me again.”
“As for that, he’d like to get his hands on any of the men who fought
against him and his followers. The Indians think——Wait, Dave! Turn in to
the shore, quick! I just saw the buffalo. He is back of the rocks over
yonder!”
The canoe was turned in the direction indicated with all possible speed.
Soon it glided under some overhanging bushes, and the paddles were
stowed away noiselessly. Then each of the young hunters caught up his
flint-lock musket, looked to the priming, to make certain that the
weapon was ready for use, and stepped ashore.
“As you saw him first, you lead,” whispered Dave Morris to his
companion, and Henry led off, with the other youth close at his heels.
Both had their eyes and ears on the alert for whatever might turn up.
As the old readers of this “Colonial Series” know, Dave and Henry Morris
were cousins, of about the same age, who when at home lived near Will’s
Creek, Virginia—close to where the town of Cumberland now stands. Dave
was the only son of a widower, James Morris, who was a well-known
trapper and fur trader. Henry came of a more numerous family, he having
an older brother Rodney and also a sister Nell, a bright miss of tender
years.
In the first three volumes of this series, entitled, respectively, “With
Washington in the West,” “Marching on Niagara,” and “At the Fall of
Montreal,” I told how Dave worked for the first President of our country
when the latter was but a humble surveyor, and how the youth also served
under his former employer during the memorable and disastrous Braddock
advance on Fort Duquesne—held at that time, 1755, by the French, and
located where the prosperous city of Pittsburg stands to-day. This was
really the opening of the fourth intercolonial war, and was followed by
an attack on Fort Niagara, and then by assaults on Quebec, Montreal, and
other points, in which fights both Dave and Henry took active parts,
doing their duty as common soldiers to the best of their ability.
With the close of the war between England and France, both of the young
soldiers were glad enough to return home, which they did in company with
a number of others, including Sam Barringford, a frontiersman who had
been their friend through thick and thin, and also White Buffalo, an old
chief of the Delawares, who was very friendly with all of the Morrises
and who had done them more than one service.
Previous to the war Dave’s father had established a small trading post
in what was then considered the “far western country.” This was on the
Kinotah, a small but beautiful stream flowing into the Ohio River. The
trader had a good deal of trouble with a rascally Frenchman, who claimed
the post as his own, and who hired a number of Indians to make war on
Mr. Morris, and at last the post had to be abandoned.
“I shall go and re-establish myself in the west,” said James Morris, to
his son and to his other relatives, and soon he set forth with a
pack-train, as related in the fourth volume of this series, called “On
the Trail of Pontiac.” Dave and Henry went with him, and after a number
of more or less thrilling adventures, the site of the post was reached.
The place had been burned down, and the forest for a long distance
around was a mass of blackened tree-stumps. Seeing this, the party
journeyed further, presently reaching the Ohio, where a new post was
established and held, despite the warlike attitude of Pontiac and many
other Indian chiefs. Once the trader and his men had to retreat to Fort
Pitt (formerly Fort Duquesne) for protection. A fierce fight was had
with the enemy under Jean Bevoir, the rascally French trader who had
caused the Morrises so much trouble, and nearly all of the enemy were
killed, Bevoir himself being wounded both in the arm and the side.
Pontiac’s first conspiracy against the English had come to naught, but
the wily Indian leader was not dismayed, and soon he plotted to fall
upon many of the settlements simultaneously. What this led to has been
related in detail in the fifth volume of this series, entitled “The Fort
in the Wilderness,” Fort Detroit was besieged and likewise Fort Pitt and
many other points of lesser importance, and had it not been for the
advance of an English army from the east, with victories at Bushy Run
and other points, there is no doubt but that the massacre of the
settlers would have been appalling. As it was, James Morris had to
abandon his new trading post, and he and Henry, with some others,
reached Fort Pitt only after a desperate struggle to escape the red men.
Dave, during this trouble, was at the home near Will’s Creek. Here the
effects of the uprising were also felt. White Buffalo, the ever-faithful
friend, brought word to the Morrises, and they took their flight to Fort
Cumberland just in the nick of time.
During a previous winter, when the snow lay deep upon the ground, the
old frontiersman, Sam Barringford, had made a curious discovery. Wrapped
in a bundle swinging from a tree he had found two boy babies, evidently
twins. He had carried the twins to the Morris cabin, where Mrs. Morris
had taken care of the babes, who, later on, were named Tom and Artie.
Barringford learned through White Buffalo that a Frenchman at Detroit
knew something about the twins and he determined to visit the fort,
taking Dave with him. The trip brought to light little that was new, but
the old frontiersman and the young soldier saw how Fort Detroit was
besieged and had much trouble in getting away. Then, in company with
Rodney Morris, the two joined the English army marching westward to
relieve Fort Pitt. After the battle of Bushy Run Dave was made a
prisoner by some Indians under Moon Eye and taken to a village, where,
to his surprise, he also found the twins and Nell, they having been
stolen some time previous. Watching his chances, the young soldier
managed to escape in a canoe during a violent storm, taking the little
twins and his cousin with him. Later he was aided by White Buffalo, and
though the Indians under Moon Eye did their best to retake their
captives, they were soon halted by James Morris, Rodney, Barringford,
Henry, and some of the English regulars, and were forced to leave that
section of the country. Dave continued on his way to Fort Pitt with his
relatives and friends; and there the whole party rested for the time
being. In the meantime word was received from the east that matters had
quieted down around Will’s Creek, so that Joseph Morris and his wife
could return to the old homestead, for which those at the fort were
thankful.
“I’d like to be back home myself,” said Rodney. In years gone by he had
been almost a cripple and the campaign against the Indians had told
greatly upon him.
“I think you had better start before long,” his uncle had answered.
“Your father will need you, and besides Nell and the twins must get
back.”
While at Fort Pitt the Morrises and Sam Barringford had come in contact
with Benoit Vascal, the Frenchman who knew something about the twins.
They thought Vascal had stolen the children from their parents, but the
Frenchman laid the blame on one Paul Camont, who had been killed by the
wolves at the spot where Tom and Artie were found. Benoit Vascal said
the children belonged to a Mr. Maurice Hamilton, a gentleman who had
visited America to look up some land claims. It was said that Mr.
Hamilton had returned to London almost a year before. A letter was sent
to England, but in those days it took a long time to cross the ocean,
and so far no answer had been received. It had been decided to keep
Benoit Vascal a prisoner at Fort Pitt, but the wily Frenchman slipped
away and left for parts unknown.