A June sky and a resplendent sun, undimmed by cloud or mist, beamed upon
the camp next morning, as we made last preparations for our departure.
Those of the men who had been detailed to "stay by the stuff," at the
block-house, were plainly dissatisfied, now that they realized that they
were to be left out of the adventures and chances, as well as the toils
and dangers of our enterprise. Those who had made the bolder choice were
as eager as boys starting on a first bear hunt. The uncertainty as to
what might befall us, the unknown country we must traverse, the very
dangers we would probably encounter, all lent mystery and excitement to
our undertaking.
The entire population of the settlement, and all the block-house
garrison were assembled on the river bank to say good-by to us. The
women were in tears, the men quiet and serious; we, on the contrary,
were hilarious with excitement.
Colonel Clark again addressed the men in words stirring and heroic, and
the command to embark was given. Company by company we stepped upon the
flat boats, and drifted rapidly down the Ohio to the falls, each raft
guided by a skilled poleman, who stood erect, steering carefully for the
one channel through which we could safely shoot the falls. The crowd on
the bank was still cheering the last boat load, as the first dropped
over the edge of the rapids. At that moment the sun, which had beamed
less fiercely for some time, though in our engrossment we had taken
little notice of the fact, became suddenly obscured, and the dimness of
twilight fell upon gliding river, green banks, and tumbling falls. One
could scarcely recognize the faces of his companions beside him in the
boat, nor the polemen see to steer. The cheering ceased, and over man,
beast and nature fell an awesome stillness. The birds in the branches of
the overhanging trees ceased their glad caroling, the insects their
buzzing, the fish their plunging, even the hurrying river seemed hushed
into a more subdued murmur, and the noise of the falls to subside into a
muffled roar.
The men in my boat drew in their breath; one uttered a stifled sigh,
another a low moan; and I realized that a word might precipitate a
panic. I stood up and studied the sky for explanation of the phenomenon.
The sun held his wonted place in a cloudless sky, but over his radiant
face lay a black disc, leaving only a bright rim upon one edge.
"It is an eclipse, comrades," I called, in my loudest tones, "an eclipse
of the sun. I take it for a good sign--symbol of what we shall do for
autocratic power upon this continent, only that will be a lasting, as
well as a total, eclipse."
My words had magic effect upon the men in our boat, and in the two
others near enough to hear my words. Clark must have said something
similar to those in his, and adjacent boats, for I saw him spring to his
feet, pointing to the sun, and simultaneously with our shouts of
"Eclipse, eclipse! good sign, good omen! Thus we'll blot out the forts
in the northwest," came like cries from the other boats, and answering
cheers from the bank. So the ominous portent, as it seemed at first, was
changed into a symbol of encouragement.
Often since, I have thought of this incident, which seems to illustrate
the way life should be met. Allow ourselves to be discouraged by
apparent auguries of failure, and we will turn our backs upon success,
when our feet are already pressing its threshold; yet such signs read by
the light of a steadfast purpose, and a courageous heart, may become but
prophecies of victory, and encouragement to more strenuous effort.
Our journey down the river was as rapid and uneventful as the most
hopeful of us could have asked; we reached the mouth of the Tennessee
without a single adventure worth recording. On the way, however, Colonel
Clark had learned a most cheering piece of news, and one momentous to
our undertaking. The rumored French alliance was made public, and France
had promised liberal and immediate aid of men, money, and a fleet. That
night when we had disembarked at the mouth of the Tennessee, after we
had tied up the boats, and killed and cooked our suppers, Clark
assembled the men, and announced the joyous intelligence he had
received, pointing out all the fortunate consequences to our expedition
to be expected from the French alliance. This was all that was needed to
give the men assurance of success, and to make them ready to brave
everything.
Next morning we shouldered all the ammunition we could march under, and
set out for Kaskaskia. We were still following the river, when, an hour
after starting, we hailed a boat load of hunters. They proved to be
Americans--a new appellation among us--but eight days out from
Kaskaskia, and after a conversation between them and Colonel Clark, one
of them, a certain John Saunders, consented to act as our guide through
the Illinois country, with which he professed to be perfectly familiar.
This solved our one difficulty, for until now we had lacked a guide.
With light hearts we resumed our tramp across prairie, marsh, and
forest, seeing victory within our grasp--renown and wealth as the
individual reward of each, and for our country extended dominion, and
added glory.
Good luck continued to attend us, while six more days passed. We had
fine weather and made good progress, considering the unbroken;
wilderness through which our route lay. Time was most precious, for
everything depended upon our reaching Kaskaskia before any rumors of our
approach should get to the ears of the commandant. Signs of lurking
Indians, pointed out from time to time by Givens and Saunders, made the
least enthusiastic among the men eager to hurry on; but these filled
Thomas and me with impatience, because even Givens discouraged our wish
to seek out their camps, and to question them in regard to Ellen. It
would be foolhardiness, declared Givens, and result only in our being
ambushed--he'd find "the gal" fast enough for us when once we were safe
behind the walls of a fort, and could kill the "redskin devils" at our
leisure.
On the eighth morning, Saunders spread consternation among us by the
announcement that he was lost--that he did not know where we were, nor
could he recognize a single landmark. The night before we had seen the
smoke from a distant camp fire, which Saunders said he doubted not was
that of some roving Miamis or Kickapoos. This fact made our predicament
the more serious. At once a halt was called, and Clark sternly declared
to the confused Saunders--who was half suspected of treachery by us
all--that unless he quickly found the way, he might prepare for instant
death. It was not possible, Givens declared, in his slow, emphatic
dialect, for a scout and woodsman to lose his way in a country he had
once traveled over, and Saunders had either lied to us in the first
place, or was laying a trap for us now; therefore all were ready to back
Colonel Clark in his evident resolve to make short work of the suspected
traitor, unless he speedily found himself. Saunders saw that his doom
was sealed if he could not quickly regain his bearings, and went to work
desperately, closely attended by two guards, retracing our way for some
distance, examining sky, stream and trees, then climbing to the tops of
the tallest to overlook the landscape.
The men sat about smoking dejectedly, or muttering their suspicions to
each other. Meantime I grew restless, and the sight of the anxious face
of Saunders, and the stern face of Clark, oppressed me. So I picked up
my rifle, and plunged into the forest which fringed the higher ground
stretching eastward. A small stream flowing out of the woods promised
either spring or pond, and possibly rare game, within. As I started I
called to Givens asking him to sound his turkey yelper should they
resume the march before my return.
The shade and freshness of the woods was most grateful and the tangle of
well laden blackberry bushes in a more open space beguiled me to stop
and pluck some of the fruit. The spring found, I looked about for signs
of game, but seeing none, propped my rifle against a tree, laid flat
down upon my chest, and buried my face in the limpid sweetness of the
pure, cool water. I drank till satisfied, then fell to dreaming. The
same scenes under different aspects came to me always in my day visions,
or night dreams--pictures of home, recollections of my childhood, and
occasionally some scenes from those few weeks of dissipation in
Philadelphia, with Nelly's witching face, swimming, amidst my memories.
But I liked the home scenes best, and next to seeing them in the flesh,
was the happiness of closing my eyes, and conjuring up visions of my
mother, of Jean, and of Ellen.
What a glad day it would be when, Ellen having been found, and our
country's independence won, Thomas and I could go home and settle down
to peace and happiness!
Peace and happiness! Would it be ours after all, so long as Aunt Martha
set herself, in her narrow bigotry, to persecute Ellen? so long as there
was estrangement between husband and wife, mother and son in my uncle's
family? So tenderhearted was my mother, so loyal to her sister, that
even we could not be a happy family while there was discord and
unhappiness in Aunt Martha's--for mother was our happiness barometer,
and the family atmosphere went up or down with her feelings. But mother
should adopt Ellen, and we would make her happy, and Aunt Martha ashamed
of her harshness and the narrowness of her religion.
Then and there I vowed a new crusade. I must be a soldier always,
fighting upon one arena or another for some principle of human
liberty--for the love of liberty and a fervent zeal for it had, from
long meditation and some sacrifices in its cause, gotten into my blood,
and become a part of my nature. When this war against autocratic rule
should be ended I would take my stand by Mr. Jefferson, and give all my
time and energies to the brave fight he was making for entire and
universal religious liberty. Deeper and deeper had I plunged into the
trackless wilderness of my own thoughts, till I was lost to
consciousness of the place, the hour and myself.
Perhaps I had been dimly conscious of some slight movement in the bushes
behind me--afterward I remembered being subtly disturbed by it, and of
lifting my head to listen--but the first sounds that really aroused me
were the short explosion of a rifle, followed, almost instantly, by the
whistle of a bullet cutting its way through the still air, and then,
scarcely a second later, a wild weird whoop, close beside me, which
caused me to spring to my feet, and turned me in its direction, as if I
had been an automaton. There, beside the tree, against which I had
leaned, was stretched the quivering body of a dying Indian. One hand
still grasped a tomahawk, while the other clutched frantically at the
leaves and grasses. A last quiver and he was still, his set eyes staring
into the branches, rustling softly above him.
It was all a mystery to me. Where had the Indian come from? Who had shot
him? I stood an instant gazing down upon the still savage in dumbfounded
amazement, then took my rifle and started back to the men in search of
an explanation of it all. Presently I overtook Givens' foster son, who
was hurrying forward as fast as he could. I caught up with him, halted
him, and asked if he had shot the Indian. He did not answer, and only
pulled his cap farther over his eyes. I took his rifle, and looked into
the bore of it; it was warm, empty, and smelled strongly of powder.
"Givens," I said planting myself before him, and holding out my hand,
"you have just saved my life, doubtless. Won't you let me thank you?"
The beardless lips of the lad, about all I could see of his face under
his wide brimmed cap, curved into a half smile, and he said, in muffled
voice, his head still on his chest:
"The savage had just poised his tomahawk for a blow when I saw him."
"You acted most promptly," I answered; "he might have brought a whole
tribe down upon us, so that you have perhaps saved the entire band, as
well as Donald McElroy." I continued to talk, to praise his coolness,
readiness, and marksmanship, and to repeat my thanks, but I got no more
out of the lad and it was so evident that I embarrassed and annoyed him
that presently I walked on and left him to follow. He seemed affected
with a painful shyness, and apparently preferred solitude to the most
flattering society.
No immediate opportunity was given me to tell Givens of his boy's kindly
deed, for, just as I joined him and Colonel Clark, talking earnestly
together, Saunders, still attended by his guards, came running toward
us, waving his arms, and shouting joyously. He had found a landmark, and
knew our locality! We were but a day's march from Kaskaskia, and the way
was safe and open!