TALES FROM THE FRONTIER--MR. TYTHINGMAN AND HIS SERVICES
This long war was a terrible strain on our Province. Some man from
almost every family in town was with the army at Lake George. The value
of our currency had fallen, and nearly one-half of what we earned and
produced went to pay the heavy taxes.
The Provinces did not work well together. There were rivalries and
dissensions among them. The French were united, and their army was led
by an able commander, the Marquis Montcalm.
Our generals were mostly incompetent men who owed their positions to
influence at court.
We kept up the bitter struggle, hoping that at last we should have a
general capable of coping with Montcalm.
[Sidenote: EDMUND ENLISTS]
It was a gloomy time, but we kept pegging away in a resolute manner, for
it was a question whether we or the French should be masters of this
country; whether we should keep our farms and have a roof over our heads
or should be overrun by murderous Indians. And arrangements were made to
have a larger army in the field than ever before.
About the middle of January, Edmund sent me word from Concord that
Captain Robert Rogers was enlisting men for a new company in his corps
of Rangers. He said: "I have joined the company and have been made
sergeant. Rogers will return to Boston by the way of Lexington and will
stay over night at Jonathan Raymond's tavern. Come up there sure and see
me."
As father and I were working in the barn, I said to him: "Father, I
think the time has come when I ought to go to the war. You promised that
I might enlist in the spring. But I'd a good deal rather go with this
man Rogers and do some fighting than sit round doing nothing and die of
camp disease as the rest of the army have been doing."
He kept on for a while pitching the hay down in front of the cattle, and
then leaned on his pitchfork.
"Well, Ben, I suppose you really ought to go. One man out of every four
in the Province is in the army, and we should do our share. I am too
old. John has just got married, and David is but a boy. You're the right
age and the one to go. I think as you do, that it's better to do some
fighting, and take one's chances of being killed by a bullet rather than
by camp fever.
"Those French and Indians killed and scalped my brother John, and since
this war began I have often wanted to have a hand in it myself, to get
even with them, but I'm too old.
"You can go, Ben. There's lots of miserable wretches and immorality and
profanity among the regulars. I want you to remain a good boy, as you
always have been. I need not tell you to be brave. You will be that.
"Ben, I scolded you about that wrestling match, but I was awful proud of
you and happy over it."
[Sidenote: THE RAYMOND TAVERN]
"I knew that, father. Do you suppose I didn't notice you chuckling to
yourself when you thought no one saw you?"
"Well, I suppose you did, you young rascal; I couldn't help it, I was
that surprised and delighted. To think of Jonas Parker telling me he
didn't know but that you were a better wrestler than he. And to see you
hustle that man about and throw him made me so proud that I felt ashamed
and humbled. And when you thought I was scolding you, I was really
reproving my own sinful vanity and pride."
After supper we went up to the Raymond Tavern. Quite a crowd of men were
in the bar-room. They were seated in front of a great fire of logs and
peat. Captain Rogers was in their midst.
Edmund came up, and made us acquainted with the captain. He shook hands
with me, and turning to father, said:--
"This is a likely young fellow, Mr. Comee. I wish I could have him with
me in my corps."
"It is possible," said father. "We have had some slight talk about it.
We will think it over."
Rogers was a big man, over six feet high, well proportioned, and
apparently very strong. Later on I learned that his strength was
wonderful. His features were prominent, strong, but not agreeable. His
eyes were not good eyes. At times, a hard, cruel look came into his
face.
He seemed to be a man of great hardihood, of great presence of mind,
keen and unscrupulous,--a man I should not wish for a neighbour.
In answer to a remark that he must find his present life quite different
from his former life, as a farmer, he said:--
"Not a bit! I never was a farmer. I was brought up in the woods on the
frontier among wild animals and Indians. My father was a hunter and
trapper. One day he went out hunting and toward night started to visit
another hunter at his hut in the woods. His friend mistook him in the
twilight and shot him. All my life has been spent in the woods, either
hunting or trading with the French and Indians, or else fighting them."
[Sidenote: A BOWL OF FLIP]
Hepzibah Raymond came in with a bowl of flip--the proper mixture of rum,
malt beer, and brown sugar.
She set it down on the hearth, and her son John, a cripple, who was
seated in the fireplace, drew one of the iron loggerheads out of the
fire, where half a dozen of them were always being heated. He hit it
against the andiron to knock the ashes off, and plunged it into the
mixture. A pleasant smell arose from it; he waited till it foamed up,
and then drew the loggerhead out. Hepzibah passed the bowl to Captain
Rogers.
"Here's to good King George and confusion to his enemies!"
He took a long draught at it, and then the bowl was passed round.
A man of middle age came into the room, with a whip in his hand, and his
hat jammed well on his head.
"Good evening, Ephraim."
"Sarvent, sirs!"
"Captain, this is Ephraim Winship. He knows something about Indian
fighting. Show him your head, Ephraim."
Ephraim took off his hat, and lifted his wig from his head. He had but
one eye. There were two bare red spots on top of his head, and between
them a fringe of hair ran back from his forehead. It gave him a weird
appearance.
"Hello!" said Rogers. "You've been among the Indians, haven't you? How
did you lose your scalp or scalps? For I see you have lost two."
The men made room for Ephraim. He put on his wig and sat down.
"I have to keep those spots pretty well covered up these winter nights,
or I have all sorts of trouble with my head.
"I had been living down on the Eastern Frontier for some years at a
place called New Marblehead. We had plenty of scares, but no real
trouble with the Indians, till this war broke out. It was in May, two
years ago. I went out with Ezra Brown, to do some work on his farm,
which was a mile from the garrison house where we lived. We had a guard
of four men and four lads. Ezra and I were ahead. As we were walking
through some woods, the Indians--there were fifteen to twenty of
them--fired at us. I felt a twinge in my shoulder and a terrible pain in
my eye. Then came a thump on my head. When I came to, I was in bed at
the garrison house, with my scalp, or rather scalps, gone, for I have
two bumps on top of my head, and they took a scalp from each bump. My
right eye was gone, and I had a bullet in the shoulder.
[Sidenote: EPHRAIM'S ADVENTURE]
"Poor Ezra was killed at the first volley and scalped. An Indian hit me
on the head with his tomahawk; but I have a good thick skull, and the
blow glanced, and only stunned me.
"Some of our men ran to the fort, but my boy Gershom rallied the rest,
and they fought the Indians, who were double their number. Both parties
got behind trees, and tried to pick each other off.
"Old Poland, their chief, fired, and in reloading exposed himself, and
was shot. Then the Indians gave an infernal screech and ran over to
him.
"As they did so, our men shot two more of them, and they picked up their
dead and carried them off."
"You had a narrow squeak of it, that time," said Rogers. "I never was
scalped, but I've been near it times enough."
Hepzibah brought in more bowls of flip, and we watched John plunge the
red-hot loggerheads in, till the foam arose, and the bitter-sweet smell
filled the room.
We were passing the bowls round, and drinking the flip, when Matthew
Mead, the tythingman, came in. He sat down and watched us. Then he went
over to John Perry, and said: "Don't drink any more, John. You have had
enough."
John let the bowl go by, for if he had disobeyed the warning of the
tythingman, he would have been punished by the magistrate, or would have
been reprimanded publicly in meeting.
"Oh, come now, Mr. Tythingman," said Rogers. "Don't spoil the sport. A
little flip does no one any harm. Sit down and join us."
[Sidenote: THE TYTHINGMAN]
"There's no doubt," said Matthew, as they passed him the bowl, and he
took a long swig at it, "that flip is a good drink. I like it, and so
does neighbour John Perry. But it must be allowed that it's a most
insinuating drink, sweet and treacherous. And neighbour John has had
enough. But the rest of the company can drink a little longer. We have
heard great stories of your adventures, captain, and would like to have
you tell us some of them."
Then Rogers told us tales of hair-breadth escapes, and of encounters
with the enemy, that made our hearts beat quick, as we listened to him.
Of scouts through the woods, in which they inspect the enemy's forts and
make plans of them. How they crept up close to the fort and captured a
vedette within two gun-shots of the gate. How they hauled whaleboats
over a mountain, embarked at the lower end of Lake Champlain, rowed down
the lake at night, and after hiding in the daytime, attacked the enemy's
boats, and sunk them.
He told of an expedition he made the previous January, with Captain
Spikeman, Lieutenant John Stark and seventy-four men.
"We went down Lake George on skates, and then through the woods back of
Fort Ticonderoga on snowshoes. When we got to Lake Champlain, we lay in
wait for the enemy's sleds, which were coming up the lake loaded with
provisions. We captured three sleds and seven prisoners, but some of the
French escaped. We learned that the fort had been reenforced, and knew
that they would have notice of our presence. Our guns were wet, for it
had been raining, and we went back to our fires and dried them. Then we
marched hastily toward Fort William Henry. About noon we were waylaid by
a large party of the enemy. We fought all the afternoon, till nightfall,
when we separated and escaped through the woods to Lake George. I
received two wounds in the fight. I sent messengers to the fort for
help, for many could go no further. Forty-eight of us out of
seventy-four got back with our prisoners. You may think, friends, that
this was a bad defeat, but we learned afterward that we fought against
two hundred and fifty men, and killed one hundred and sixteen of them.
Your old friend Captain Spikeman was killed in the fight."
[Sidenote: A SUCCESSFUL DEFEAT]
The bowls of flip had been going round while Rogers was talking, and
finally Matthew Mead said:--
"Well, neighbours, I think we are getting toward the state where
neighbour John was when I came, and we'd better all go home."
As we rose, Rogers said: "I want some of you fellows with me this coming
campaign, and we'll make things lively for the French up around Fort Ti
and have some fun. I count on you, Comee."