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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Strange Stories of Colonial Days, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Strange Stories of Colonial Days
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: December 1, 2010 [EBook #34536]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STRANGE STORIES OF COLONIAL DAYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland, S.D., and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: [See page 43
+
+HE MANAGED TO PULL HIM UP BEHIND]
+
+
+
+
+  STRANGE STORIES
+
+  OF
+
+  COLONIAL DAYS
+
+  BY
+
+  FRANCIS STERNE PALMER, G. T. FERRIS
+  HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH
+  FRANCIS S. DRAKE
+  ROWAN STEVENS
+  AND OTHERS
+
+  ILLUSTRATED
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  NEW YORK AND LONDON
+  HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS
+
+
+  Copyright, 1907, by Harper & Brothers.
+
+  ***
+
+  All rights reserved.
+
+  Published May, 1907.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  I
+  THE CROWNING OF POWHATAN
+  Adventures in Early Indian History
+  By Francis S. Drake
+
+  II
+  CORNELIS LABDEN'S LEAP
+  A Legend of 1645 Retold
+  By G. T. Ferris
+
+  III
+  TOMMY TEN-CANOES
+  A Tale of King Philip's Scouts
+  By Hezekiah Butterworth
+
+  IV
+  JONATHAN'S ESCAPE
+  A Young Hero of Hadley who Fought at Turner's
+  Falls in 1676
+  By Robert H. Fuller
+
+  V
+  THE CROWN OF AN AMERICAN QUEEN
+  In the Days of Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia
+  By Sally Nelson Robins
+
+  VI
+  HOW A BLACKSMITH'S BOY BECAME A KNIGHT
+  The Treasure-hunt of William Phipps in the late
+  Seventeenth Century
+  By Paul Hull
+
+  VII
+  THE GIRL CAPTAIN OF CASTLE DANGEROUS
+  How Three Children Fought the Iroquois in 1692
+  By G. T. Lanigan
+
+  VIII
+  HOW MARC WAS MADE CAPTAIN
+  A Rescue from the "Lords of the Woods" in 1695
+  By Francis Sterne Palmer
+
+  IX
+  CAPTAIN KIDD
+  An Overrated Pirate
+  By Rowan Stevens
+
+  X
+  HOWARD THE BUCCANEER
+  A Captain of Many Ships
+  By Rowan Stevens
+
+  XI
+  TEW, OF RHODE ISLAND
+  A Fighter from the Seas
+  By Rowan Stevens
+
+  XII
+  THE VROUW VAN TWINKLE'S KRULLERS
+  A Story of Old New York
+  By Agnes Carr Sage
+
+  XIII
+  THE SIGN OF THE SERPENT
+  A Story of Louisiana in the Early Eighteenth
+  Century
+  By G. T. Ferris
+
+  XIV
+  A DRUMMER OF WARBURTON'S
+  How a Boy Held Fort George at Cape Canso, in
+  1757
+  By Percie W. Hart
+
+  XV
+  ROGER'S RANGERS
+  The Famous New Hampshire Scouts of the Old
+  French War
+  By Francis S. Drake
+
+  XVI
+  THE PLOT OF PONTIAC
+  How Detroit was Saved in 1763
+  By Francis S. Drake
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+  HE MANAGED TO PULL HIM UP BEHIND                   Frontispiece
+
+  "MEIN VROUW! MEIN GILDREN!" THE DUTCHMAN GROANED   Facing p. 16
+
+  "GOOD-BYE, TOMMY FIVE-CANOES"                         "      32
+
+  THE THONGS WERE CUT                                   "      92
+
+  HE PLUNDERED AND BURNED                               "     108
+
+  THE HELPLESS PIRATES WERE SWEPT BACK                  "     122
+
+  HE WAS KNOCKED OVERBOARD BY A PIKE-THRUST             "     144
+
+  SHE ROLLED AND PITCHED LIKE A MAD THING               "     204
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+These pictures of Colonial life and adventure make up a panorama which
+extends from Powhatan and John Smith, in the days of the Jamestown
+colony, to Pontiac's attempt upon Detroit in the period which preceded
+the Revolution. Here one may read stories which are strange indeed, of
+King Philip's War in New England, of a Dutch hero's exploit on the
+shores of Long Island Sound, of conflicts with the fierce Iroquois in
+the North, of a young New Englander's successful treasure-hunt, and of
+famous or infamous pirates of Colonial times. They carry the reader from
+a boy's defence of Fort George in Nova Scotia to battle against the
+Natchez at an advance post of the Louisiana colony. For the most part
+these thrilling tales are in the form of fiction, but it is fiction
+based upon historical incidents. The imaginative stories, and others
+which are historical narratives, will, it is believed, illustrate many
+unfamiliar dramas in Colonial life, and will help to give a clearer view
+of the men and boys who fought and endured to clear the way for us upon
+this continent.
+
+
+
+
+STRANGE STORIES OF COLONIAL DAYS
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE CROWNING OF POWHATAN
+
+Adventures in Early Indian History
+
+
+The first European visitors to the shores of North America met with a
+most friendly reception from the natives. Powhatan, the Indian Emperor
+of Virginia, who ruled in savage state over twenty-six Indian nations,
+on more than one occasion kept the Virginia colonists from starvation by
+sending them corn when they were almost famished. To retain his
+good-will a crown was sent over from England, and the Indian monarch was
+crowned with as much ceremony as possible. A present from King James of
+a basin and ewer, a bed, and some clothes was also brought to Jamestown,
+but Powhatan refused to go there to receive it.
+
+"I also am a King, and gifts should be brought to me," said the proud
+monarch of the Virginia woods. They were accordingly taken to him by the
+colonists.
+
+The coronation was "a sad trouble," wrote Captain John Smith, but it had
+its laughable side also, as we shall see. Custom required that the
+Indian ruler should kneel. Only by bearing their whole weight upon his
+shoulders could the English upon whom this duty devolved bring the chief
+from an up-right position into one suitable to the occasion. By main
+force he was made to kneel.
+
+The firing of a pistol as a signal for a volley from the boats in honor
+of the event startled his copper-colored Majesty. Supposing himself
+betrayed, Powhatan at once struck a defensive attitude, but was soon
+reassured. The absurdity of the whole affair reached its climax when
+Powhatan gave to the representatives of his royal brother in England
+his old moccasins, the deer-skin he used as a blanket, and a few bushels
+of corn in the ear.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+On the New England coast the anger of the natives had been aroused by
+the conduct of visiting sailors, who would persuade them to come on
+board their ships, and then carry them off and sell them into slavery.
+
+One of these natives, named Epanow, "an Indian of goodly stature,
+strong, and well proportioned," after being exhibited in London as a
+curiosity, came into the service of Sir Ferdinand Gorges, Governor of
+Plymouth. This gentleman was much interested in New England, and was
+about fitting out a ship for a voyage to this country.
+
+The Indian soon found out that gold was the great object of the
+Englishman's worship, and he was cunning enough to take advantage of the
+fact. He assured Sir Ferdinand that in a certain place in his own
+country gold was to be had in abundance. The Englishman believed him,
+and Epanow sailed in Gorges's vessel to point out the whereabouts of
+the supposed gold-mine.
+
+When the ship entered the harbor many of the natives came on board.
+Epanow arranged with them a plan of escape, which was successfully
+carried out the next morning.
+
+At the appointed time twenty canoes full of armed Indians came to within
+a short distance of the ship. The captain invited them to come on board.
+Epanow had been clothed in long garments, that he might the more easily
+be laid hold of in case he attempted to escape, and he was also closely
+guarded by three of Gorges's kinsmen.
+
+The critical moment arrived. Epanow suddenly freed himself from his
+guards, and springing over the vessel's side, succeeded in reaching his
+countrymen in safety, though many shots were fired after him by the
+English.
+
+In this affair the European was completely outwitted by the ignorant
+savage. Gorges was bitterly disappointed. Writing of it he says, "And
+thus were my hopes of that particular voyage made void and frustrate."
+And thus, we may add, the first gold-hunting expedition to the coast of
+Maine "ended in smoke"--from the Englishmen's guns.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+For many years after the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth the
+relations of the English with the Massachusetts Indians were peaceful.
+Only once was there any attempt to disturb them. To try the mettle of
+the colonists, Canonicus, the powerful Narragansett chief, sent them by
+a messenger a bundle of arrows wrapped in the skin of a snake--a
+challenge to fight. Governor Bradford returned the skin filled with
+powder and shot, with the message that if they had rather have war than
+peace they might begin when they pleased, he was ready for them. This
+prompt defiance impressed the chief. He would not receive the skin, and
+wisely concluded to keep the peace.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+What is known as King Philip's War broke out in 1675. Though it lasted
+but little over a year, it was terribly destructive, and it carried
+misery to many a hearth-stone.
+
+Philip of Pokanoket, the chief of the Wampanoags, had for years been
+suspected of plotting against the English. He had resisted all their
+efforts to convert his people to Christianity, and had told the
+venerable apostle Eliot himself that he cared no more for the white
+man's religion than for the buttons on his (Eliot's) coat. On another
+occasion he refused to make a treaty with the Governor of Massachusetts,
+sending him this answer:
+
+"Your Governor is but a subject of King Charles of England. I shall not
+treat with a subject. I shall treat of peace only with the King, my
+brother. When he comes, I am ready."
+
+On the morning of April 10, 1671, the meeting-house on Taunton Green
+presented a scene of extraordinary interest. Seated on the benches upon
+one side of the house were Philip and his warriors, and on the other
+side were the white men. Both parties were equipped for battle. The
+Indians looked as formidable as possible in their war-paint, their hair
+"trimmed up in comb fashion," with their long bows and quivers of
+arrows, and here and there a gun in the hands of those best skilled in
+its use. The English wore the costume of Cromwell, with broad-brimmed
+hats, cuirasses, long swords, and unwieldly guns. Each party looked at
+the other with unconcealed hatred.
+
+The result of this conference was that the Indians agreed to give up all
+their guns, and Philip, upon his part, also promised to send a yearly
+tribute of five wolves' heads--"If he could get them."
+
+As the Indians had almost forgotten how to use their old weapons, the
+taking of their fire-arms away was a serious grievance. Other causes of
+enmity arose, and at last the war begun, which in its course caused the
+destruction of thirteen towns and hundreds of valuable lives.
+
+Philip was joined by the Nipmucks, as the Indians of the interior were
+called, and by the Narragansetts, whose stronghold was captured in the
+winter of 1675-76. Here seven hundred of this hapless tribe perished by
+fire or the sword. The death of Philip, in August, 1676, ended the war.
+Many of the Indians fled to the west, and a large number died in slavery
+in the West Indies. The power of the Indians of southern New England was
+broken forever.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Captain Benjamin Church, a prominent actor in this war, was the most
+celebrated Indian fighter of his day. One of his most remarkable feats
+was the capture of Annawan, Philip's chief captain. Annawan often said
+that he would never be taken by the English.
+
+Informed by a captured Indian where Annawan lay, Church, with only one
+other Englishman and a few friendly Indians, succeeded in gaining the
+rear of the Indian camp.
+
+The approach to this secluded spot was extremely difficult. It was
+nearly dark when they reached it, and the Indians were preparing their
+evening meal. A little apart from the others, and within easy reach of
+the guns of the party, the chief and his son were reclining on the
+ground. An old squaw was pounding corn in a mortar, the noise of which
+prevented the discovery of Church's approach, as he and his companions
+cautiously lowered themselves from rock to rock. They were preceded by
+an old Indian and his daughter, whom they had captured, and who, with
+their baskets at their backs, aided in concealing their approach.
+
+By these skilful tactics Church succeeded in placing himself between the
+chief and the guns, seeing which, Annawan suddenly started up with the
+cry, "Howoh!" ("I am taken.") Perceiving that he was surrounded, he made
+no attempt to escape.
+
+After securing the arms, Church sent his Indian scouts among Annawan's
+men to tell them that their chief was captured, and that Church with his
+great army had entrapped them, and would cut them to pieces unless they
+surrendered. This they accordingly did, and, on the promise of kind
+treatment, gave up all their arms. This well-executed surprise was the
+closing event of King Philip's War.
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+CORNELIS LABDEN'S LEAP
+
+A Legend of 1645 Retold
+
+
+The scene was only thirty miles from New York, on the shores of Long
+Island Sound. At the time of which we write it was a sweep of dense
+forest.
+
+Outside of the block-house, built where the Myanos River enters a bay of
+the Sound, one September day in 1645 walked two elderly men, grizzled of
+beard and soldierly in bearing. Broadswords swung from their cross-belts
+and huge pistolets were stuck in their girdles. These were famous
+fighting men in New England history, Daniel Patrick and John Underhill.
+Bred to camps, they had chafed under Puritan laws, and had finally
+deserted the older settlements. Indeed, Captain Patrick had been the
+leader of the little colony which had made this beautiful place its
+home.
+
+"I tell thee, John, I trust not the savage any longer. Ponus hath been
+as surly as a bear with a sore head of late. I fear the Sagamore plots
+evil."
+
+"Belike you are right, good Captain," said Underhill, "and we must match
+craft with craft."
+
+"Rumor hath it, too," said Captain Patrick, with growing trouble on his
+face, "that strange runners have been back and forth during the month at
+the Sinoway village. We cannot look to our English friends for help,
+since we signed the pact with his Excellency Governor Kieft, accepting
+the rule of New Netherland. If an outbreak occurs, it must be from the
+Manhattans that relief will come. But look! there rides Dutch Cornelis
+with a bale of peltries to his crupper."
+
+Among a few Dutch who mingled with the English of the settlement was
+Cornelis Labden, a bold hunter and trapper, who, unlike the rest of the
+colonists, got his livelihood by the fur-trade. He sold his pelts at the
+Dutch trading-post about seven miles west, just over the line which now
+separates New York from Connecticut. Thither he was riding when accosted
+by the two captains. Cornelis was noted for his daring and skill in
+woodcraft, and had always lived on specially friendly terms with the
+Indians, as was, indeed, his interest. His log house was built on the
+brow of a great precipice of beetling rock one hundred feet or more in
+height, in the heart of a gloomy forest two miles from the outskirts of
+the settlement. The spot is still known as Labden's Rock, and the writer
+has shot many a squirrel there in woods still solemn with deepest
+shadow. Here Cornelis lived with his English wife and two children, Hans
+and Anneke.
+
+"Well met, Cornelis," said Patrick. "We were holding counsel concerning
+our Indian neighbors. What think you of their peaceful purpose?"
+
+The Dutchman shook his head. He was a man of few words. "Der outlook ist
+pad, Cabdain. Dot yoong Gief Owenoke say to me toder day, 'Cornelis,
+Indian's friend, bedder go 'way. Indian very angry at bale-faces.'
+Owenoke's vader, Ponus, means misgief. But no tanger dill der snow
+vlies. Der Indians, if dey addack, waid dill grops all in."
+
+"You are bound, I suppose, to Byram Fort with your peltries. Tarry
+awhile, and carry me a letter for the Governor. I will write it
+forthwith." Captain Patrick disappeared in the block-house, and wrote to
+the Dutch Governor as follows:
+
+   "_To his Excellency, Wilhelm Kieft, Governor-General of New
+   Netherland at New Amsterdam, greeting_:
+
+   "This in haste:--Whereas it cometh to me with some surety that
+   the savages on our border plot an early outbreak, I would urge
+   that a company of musketeers be sent to the trading-post at
+   Byram to protect the outlying country. Thence sure help may
+   reach this settlement. Once the savages break loose they will
+   ravage the region for many miles with torch and tomahawk. I
+   would entreat your Excellency to act right speedily in this
+   affair. Cornelis Labden, who is well skilled in Indian
+   matters, bears this letter.
+
+                                           "DANIEL PATRICK."
+
+It will be seen by this that Captain Patrick did not share the
+confidence of Cornelis. But all the people were very busy afield at that
+time gathering their crops, and they were loath to think that danger was
+pressing. The women and children, however, were gathered every night in
+the block-house. It may be that this measure of care on the part of the
+settlers quickened the action of the Indians in the fear that their
+purpose had been discovered. Within three days the outbreak came. The
+forest was glowing with all the rich hues of autumn, when through its
+arches burst at different points bands of naked warriors, painted with
+as many colors as the leaves themselves, and yelling their shrill
+war-whoops. Every colonist amid the yellowing corn-stalks of the fields
+had his firelock close at hand. They all skirmished back through this
+cover and across the rye and buckwheat stubble towards the block-house,
+firing and loading as they ran. Yet several fell under the cloud of
+arrows before the fugitives reached the little fort. The two captains,
+each with a party of men, charged the savages fiercely on either flank
+as they leaped into the open, and drove them back with heavy loss. The
+settlers then withdrew behind the palisades, awaiting attack.
+
+The red besiegers, having exhausted their arts of attack and met with
+heavy loss, for musket-balls told with terrible effect against flint
+arrows, determined to starve out the little garrison. It was on the
+morning of the third day that a rider galloped furiously from the west
+to the bank of the Myanos, where the log bridge had been destroyed by
+the Indians. Dutch Cornelis had ridden daringly through the midst of
+them. A band of howling braves swarmed almost at his horse's tail. He
+leaped his beast into the river amid the whizzing arrows, several of
+which stung both steed and rider sharply. Captain Underhill, with a
+score of colonists, sallied out from the palisades, driving the redskins
+from their front and opening a heavy fire on those lining the opposite
+bank. Under cover of this Cornelis landed safely. He had been sent on
+from Byram to New Amsterdam with Patrick's letter, and it was only by
+hard spurring that he had made such speed in return. He brought the good
+news that even then a company of Dutch musketeers was on the march.
+
+The women and children trooped out of the block-house to hear the
+tidings. Cornelis cast his eyes over them with agony stamped on his
+usually stolid face.
+
+"Mein vrouw! mein gildren!" the Dutchman groaned. "What for you leave
+dem to de mercy of de savage?" with a look of fierce reproach at the two
+English captains.
+
+[Illustration: "MEIN VROUW! MEIN GILDREN!" THE DUTCHMAN GROANED]
+
+"Nay! nay! Cornelis, blame us not," they answered, almost in a breath.
+"We were sharp beset. 'Twas not easy to gather in all the outlying
+people in season. There be others as well not saved in the block. The
+savage, too, is far more friendly to you than to us English. There's
+right good hope that at the worst the lost are but captives."
+
+This cold comfort seemed to madden the bereaved man. Muttering to
+himself in his own tongue, and darting wild looks around, as if his
+brain were turned and he were about to run amuck, he suddenly sprang on
+his horse, which panted there, fagged and dripping.
+
+"Oben der gate!" he shouted, in a tone so commanding that, though
+several tried to seize his horse's head by the bit, fearing some act of
+desperate folly, others unbarred the entrance. Cornelis dashed through
+as swiftly as an Indian arrow. Two miles of clearing and forest lay
+between him and his cabin. The way was thick with savages thirsting for
+blood. Cornelis spurred on, numb to all sense of danger. The smoke even
+yet curled from the embers of smouldering homesteads at every turn. But
+he saw only one house in his mind's eye--that was a cabin perched in the
+midst of a clearing on top of a great rock, with flames bursting from
+its roof; he heard but one sound--the shrieking of wife and children in
+their last peril.
+
+Perhaps it was the wild gestures of the rider, signalling as if to
+unseen beings, the motions of a maniac, which barred any pursuit at the
+outset, for the American Indian as well as the Mohammedan of the East
+fancies the madman under the protection of God; perhaps it was that many
+of the savages felt more kindly to Cornelis than to other whites. It was
+not till he neared the base of the precipice, on the crest of which he
+had built his home, that he saw six Indians on his track, leaping at a
+pace which outran the strides of his weary horse.
+
+The Dutchman turned in his saddle, and his unerring aim dropped one of
+the pursuers; then he urged his way amid the gloom of the great trees up
+the hill. When he gained the clearing at the top he saw what had once
+been his happy home, now only a pile of cold ashes and half-charred
+logs. He had no time to search if by chance there might yet remain some
+ghastly relic of those he had loved and lost. The red men were upon him,
+running as fleetly as stag-hounds, for now they were on the level.
+
+They were sure of their prey. A triumphant whoop rang out. Tomahawks
+whizzed through the air, one of them striking Cornelis in the shoulder,
+as the savages pressed on at top speed. The white man laughed loud and
+long with a laughter that filled the forest with shrill echoes, and
+motioning to them as if he were their leader, leaped his horse from the
+top of the terrible rock, crashing through the branches of trees down,
+down a hundred feet. The human hounds so hot in the chase were going
+with a rush which could not be stayed, and they too plunged to death in
+the pathway of their victim. Cornelis escaped with broken limbs, though
+his horse was killed, and all the Indians perished but one, who saved
+himself by clutching at the limb of a tree. He fled and carried the
+story to his tribe.
+
+With the coming of the Dutch soldiers the settlers were strong enough to
+scatter their assailants. But most of the colonists, discouraged,
+drifted away to the New Netherlands or to the more easterly settlements.
+It was not till two years later that a force of Dutch and English
+stormed the Sinoway village and crushed the power of the tribe, after
+which the town was successfully settled.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Ten years have passed. The skill and toil of the whites have swept away
+the scars of Indian warfare. Pleasant homes rise amid smiling fields of
+maize and rye. One summer day, Cornelis Labden, a helpless cripple and
+almost half-witted, sat on the porch of Captain Underhill's house,
+smoking his long Dutch pipe and looking at the shining waters of the
+Sound. Here or in the good Captain's hearth-corner he would doze and
+mumble all day long summer and winter. An Indian youth, nearly grown,
+walked up the lane and stood before this poor wreck of a man. Cornelis
+shut his eyes, and waved him off as if to drive away some thought that
+troubled his weak brain.
+
+"Lapten, me find Lapten," said the Indian, whose blue eyes and brown
+hair were queerly amiss with the copper skin, the breech-clout, and the
+moccasins of the savage.
+
+The sound of the voice stirred Cornelis strangely, and as if by some
+instinct he spoke in Dutch. The lad listened eagerly, for the words
+seemed to be half known to him, and he repeated them. Cornelis watched
+him with an intent look, like the gaze of one just awakened from a long
+sleep. He trembled, and for the first time in years intelligence burned
+in his eyes. Without another word he led the Indian lad within and began
+to rub the skin of his face with soap and water, and in a few moments
+the clear white was shown. While he was thus engaged over the
+unresisting youth, Captain Underhill entered.
+
+"Cabdain, Cabdain," said Cornelis, with a shaking voice, "mein Hans ist
+goom back. Done ye know yer old vader, leedle Hans? Vare ist Anneke?"
+And he threw his arms with a passion of sobs about the lad's neck. This
+opened the gates of memory for father and son, and the identity was soon
+made clear. In recovering his son, Dutch Cornelis had also regained his
+reason.
+
+By gradual questioning, the facts were fully obtained as the
+half-forgotten language of childhood came back. Hans and Anneke had been
+carried off by strange Indians of the more northern tribes, who had
+sent warriors to join in the Sinoway attack. The children had been
+separated, and Anneke was lost forever. As Hans grew up, forgetting
+much, he still remembered his father's name and his white blood. He had
+finally escaped from his adopted tribe, and worked his way by a strange
+series of accidents and guesses back to the place of his birth. Such, in
+the main, is the legend of Labden's Rock.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+TOMMY TEN-CANOES
+
+A Tale of King Philip's Scout
+
+
+There once lived in New York an Indian warrior by the name of Peter
+Twenty-Canoes. Tommy Ten-Canoes lived in New England, at Pokanoket, near
+Mount Hope, on an arm of the Mount Hope Bay.
+
+He was not a warrior, but a runner; not a great naval hero, as his
+picturesque name might suggest, but a news agent, as it were; he used
+his nimble feet and his ten canoes to bear messages to the Indians of
+the villages of Pokanoket and to the Narragansetts, and, it may be, to
+other friendly tribes.
+
+Pokanoket? You may have read Irving's sketch of Philip of Pokanoket, but
+we doubt if you have in mind any clear idea of this beautiful region,
+from whose clustering wigwams the curling smoke once rose among the
+giant oaks along the many waterways. The former site of Pokanoket is now
+covered by Bristol and Warren (Rhode Island) and Swansea
+(Massachusetts). It is a place of bays and rivers, which were once rich
+fishing-grounds; of shores full of shells and shellfish; of cool springs
+and wild-grape vines; of bowery hills; and of meadows that were once
+yellow with maize.
+
+Tommy Ten-Canoes was a great man in his day. As a news agent in peace he
+was held in high honor, but as a scout in war and a runner for the great
+chiefs he became a heroic figure. There were great osprey's nests all
+about the shores of old Pokanoket on the ancient decayed trees, and
+Tommy made a crown of osprey feathers, and crowned himself, with the
+approval of the great Indian chiefs.
+
+Once when swimming with this crown of feathers on his head, he had been
+shot at by an Englishman, who thought him some new and remarkable bird.
+But while his crown was shattered, it was not the crown of his head. He
+was very careful of both his crowns after that alarming event.
+
+Tommy Ten-Canoes was a brave man. He was ready to face any ordinary
+danger for his old chief Massasoit, and for that chief's two sons,
+Wamsutta (Alexander) and Pomebacen (Philip). He would cross the Mount
+Hope or the Narragansett bay in tempestuous weather. He used to convey
+the beautiful Queen Weetamoc from Pocassett to Mount Hope to attend
+Philip's war-dances under the summer moons, and when the old Indian war
+began he offered his two swift legs and all of his ten canoes to the
+service of his chief.
+
+"Nipanset"--for this was his Indian name--"Nipanset's bosom is his
+chief's, and it knows not fear. Nipanset fears not the storm or the foe,
+or the gun of the pale-face. Call, call, O ye chiefs; in the hour of
+danger call for Nipanset. Nipanset fears not death."
+
+So Tommy Ten-Canoes boasted at the great council under the moss-covered
+cliff at Mount Hope.
+
+He was honest; but there was one thing that Nipanset, or Tommy
+Ten-Canoes, did fear. It was enchantment. He would have faced torture or
+death without a word, but everything mysterious filled him with terror.
+If he had thought that a bush contained a hidden enemy and flintlock, he
+would have been very brave; but had he thought that the same bush was
+stirred by a spirit, or was enchanted, he would have run.
+
+Tommy Ten-Canoes had been friendly to the white people who had settled
+in Pokanoket. There was a family by the name of Brown, who lived on
+Cole's River, that he especially liked, and he became a companion of one
+of the sons named James. The two were so often together that the people
+used to speak of those who were very intimate as being "as _thick_ as
+little James Brown and old Tommy Ten-Canoes," or rather as "Jemmie
+Brown" and our young hero of the many birch boats.
+
+The two hunted and fished together; they made long journeys together; in
+fact, they did everything in common, except work. Tommy did not work,
+at least in the field, while James did at times, when he was not with
+Tommy.
+
+When the Indian war began, King Philip sent word to the Brown family,
+and also to the Cole family, who lived near them, both of whom had
+treated him justly and generously, that he would do all in his power to
+protect them, but that he might not be able to restrain his braves.
+
+Tommy Ten-Canoes brought a like friendly message to Jemmie Brown.
+
+"I will always be true to you," he said; "true as the north wind to the
+river, the west wind to the sea, and the south wind to the flowers.
+Nipanset's heart is true to his friends. Our hearts will see each other
+again."
+
+The Indian torch swept the settlements. One of the bravest scouts in
+these dark scenes was Tommy Ten-Canoes. He flew from place to place like
+the wind, carrying news and spying out the enemy.
+
+Tommy grew proud over his title of "Ten-Canoes." He felt like ten
+Tommies. He wore his crown of osprey feathers like a royal king. His
+ten canoes ferried the painted Indians at night, and carried the chiefs
+hither and thither.
+
+There was a grizzly old Boston Captain, who had done hard service on the
+sea, named Moseley. He wore a wig, a thing that the Indians had never
+seen, and of whose use they knew nothing at all.
+
+Tommy Ten-Canoes had never feared the white man nor the latter's
+death-dealing weapons. He had never retreated; he had always been found
+in front of the stealthy bands as they pursued the forest trails. But
+his courage was at last put to a test of which he had never dreamed.
+
+Old Captain Moseley had led a company of trained soldiers against the
+Indians from Boston. Tommy Ten-Canoes had discovered the movement, and
+had prepared the Indians to meet it. Captain Moseley's company, which
+consisted of one hundred men, had first marched to a place called Myles
+Bridge in Swansea. Here was a garrison house in which lived Rev. John
+Myles. The church was called Baptist, but people of all faiths were
+welcome to it; among the latter, Marinus Willett, who afterwards became
+the first Mayor of New York. It was the first church of the kind in
+Massachusetts, and it still exists in Swansea.
+
+Over the glimmering waterways walled with dark oak woods came Tommy
+Ten-Canoes, with five of his famous boats, and landed at a place near
+the thrifty Baptist colony, so that his little navy might be at the
+ready service of Philip. It was the last days of June. There had been an
+eclipse of the moon on the night that Tommy Ten-Canoes had glided up the
+Sowans River towards Myles Bridge. He thought the eclipse was meant for
+him and his little boats, and he was a very proud and happy man.
+
+"The moon went out in the clear sky when we left the bay," said he; "so
+shall our enemies be extinguished. The moon shone again on the calm
+river. For whom did the moon shine again? For Nipanset."
+
+Poor Tommy Ten-Canoes! He was not the first hero of modern times who
+has thought that the moon and stars were made for him and shone for him
+on special occasions.
+
+In old Captain Moseley's company was a Jamaica pilot who had visited
+Pokanoket and been presented to Tommy, and told that the latter was a
+very renowned Indian.
+
+"_What_ are you?" asked the Pilot.
+
+"I am Tommy One-Canoe."
+
+"Ah!"
+
+"I am Tommy Two-Canoes."
+
+"Indeed! Ah!"
+
+"I am Tommy Three-Canoes."
+
+"Oh! Ah! Indeed!"
+
+"I am Tommy Four-Canoes, _and_ I am Tommy Five-Canoes, _and_ I am Tommy
+Six-Canoes, _and_ I am Tommy TEN-Canoes."
+
+"Well, Tommy Ten-Canoes," said the Pilot, "don't you ever get into any
+trouble with the white people, because you might find yourself merely
+Tommy No-Canoes."
+
+Tommy was offended at this. He had no fears of such a fall from power,
+however.
+
+The old Jamaica pilot had taken a boat and drifted down the Sowans
+River one long June day, when he chanced to discover Tommy and his five
+canoes. The canoes were hauled up on the shore under the cool trees
+which overshadowed the water. The Pilot, who had with him three men,
+rowed boldly to the shore and surprised Tommy Ten-Canoes, who had gone
+into the wood, leaving his weapons in one of his canoes.
+
+The Pilot seized the canoe with the weapons and drew it from the shore.
+
+Tommy Ten-Canoes beheld the movement with astonishment. He called to the
+old Pilot, "I am Tommy Ten-Canoes!"
+
+"No, no," answered the Pilot. "You are Tommy Nine-Canoes."
+
+Presently the Pilot drew from the shore another canoe. Tommy called
+again:
+
+"Don't you know me? I am--"
+
+"Tommy Eight-Canoes," said the Pilot.
+
+Another boat was removed in like manner, and the Pilot shouted, "And now
+you are Tommy Seven-Canoes." Another, and the Pilot called again, "Now
+you are Tommy Six-Canoes." Another. "Good-bye, Tommy Five-Canoes," said
+the Pilot, and he and his men drew all of the light canoes after them up
+the river.
+
+[Illustration: "GOOD-BYE, TOMMY FIVE-CANOES"]
+
+Xerxes at Salamis could hardly have felt more crushed in heart than
+Tommy Ten-Canoes. But hope revived; he was Tommy Five-Canoes still. He
+was not quite so sure now, however, that the moon on that still June
+night had been eclipsed expressly for him.
+
+The scene of the war now changed to the western border, as the towns of
+Hadley and Deerfield were called, for these towns in that day were the
+"great west," as afterwards was the Ohio Reserve. Tommy having lost five
+of his canoes, now used his swift feet as a messenger. He still had
+hopes of doing great deeds, else why had the moon been eclipsed on that
+beautiful June night?
+
+But an event followed the loss of his five canoes that quite changed his
+opinion. As a messenger or runner he had hurried to the scene of the
+brutal conflicts on the border, and had there discovered that Captain
+Moseley, the old Jamaica pirate, was subject to some spell of
+enchantment; that he had two heads.
+
+"Ugh! ugh! him no good!" said one of the Indians to Tommy; "he take off
+his head and put him in his pocket. It is no use to fight him. Spell set
+on him--enchanted."
+
+Tommy Ten-Canoes' fear of the man with two heads, one of which he
+sometimes took off and put in his pocket, spread among the Indians. One
+day in a skirmish Tommy saw Moseley take off one of his enchanted heads
+and hang it on a blueberry bush. Other Indians saw it. "No scalp him,"
+said they. "Run!" And run they did, not from the open foe, but from the
+supposed head on the bush. Moseley did not dream at the time that it was
+his wig that had given him the victory.
+
+Across the Mount Hope Bay, among the sunny headlands of Pocassett, there
+was an immense cedar swamp, cool and dark, and in summer full of
+fire-flies. Tommy Ten-Canoes called it the swamp of the fire-flies. It
+was directly opposite Pokanoket, across the placid water. A band of
+Indians gathered there, and covered their bodies with bushes, so that
+they might not be discovered on the shore.
+
+One moonlight night in September Tommy went to visit these masked
+Indians in four of his canoes. He rowed one of his canoes, and three
+squaws the others. On reaching the fire-fly cedar swamp the party met
+the masked Indians, and late at night retired to rest, the three Indian
+squaws sleeping on the shore under their three canoes.
+
+Captain Moseley had sent the old Jamaica pilot to try to discover the
+hiding-place of this mysterious band of Indians. The Pilot had seen the
+four canoes crossing the bay from Pokanoket under the low September
+moon, and had hurried with a dozen men to the place of landing. He
+surprised the party early the next morning, when they were disarmed and
+asleep.
+
+The crack of his musket rang out in the clear air over the bay. A naked
+Indian was seen to leap up.
+
+"Stop! I am Tommy Ten-Canoes."
+
+"No, Tommy Five-Canoes," answered the Pilot; "and now you are only
+Tommy Four-Canoes." Saying which, the Pilot seized the _sixth_ canoe.
+
+A shriek followed; another, and another. Three canoes hidden in the
+river-weeds were overturned, and three Indian squaws were seen running
+into the dark swamp.
+
+"And now you are Tommy Three-Canoes," said the Pilot, seizing the
+seventh canoe. "And now Tommy Two-Canoes," seizing the eighth.
+
+"And only Tommy One-Canoe," taking possession of the ninth canoe. "And
+now you are Tommy No-Canoes, as I told you you would be if you went to
+war," said the Pilot, taking according to this odd reckoning the
+Indian's last canoe.
+
+But Tommy had one canoe left, notwithstanding the dark Pilot had taken
+his _tenth_. He was glad that it was not here. It would have been his
+_eleventh_ canoe, although he had but ten. He knew that the Pilot was
+one of Moseley's men, the Captain who put his head at times in his
+pocket or hung it upon a bush. Poor Tommy Ten-Canoes! He uttered a
+shriek, like the fugitive squaws, and fled.
+
+"Don't shoot at him," said the old Pilot to his men. "I have taken from
+him all of his ten canoes; let him go."
+
+Tommy had not a mathematical mind or education, but he knew that somehow
+he had no eleventh canoe, and that one of his ten canoes yet remained.
+And even the old Pilot must have at last seen that his count of ten was
+only nine. Tommy fled to a point on the Titicut River at which he could
+swim across, and then made his solitary way back to the shores of
+Pokanoket and to his remaining canoe, which did not belong to
+mathematics.
+
+One morning late in September Tommy Ten-Canoes turned his solitary canoe
+towards Cole's River, near which lived his boy friend, James Brown. He
+paddled slowly, and late in the dreamy afternoon reached the shore
+opposite the Brown farm. He landed and tied his one canoe to Jemmie
+Brown's boat, in which the two had spent many happy hours before the
+war.
+
+The canoe was found there the next day; but Tommy Ten-Canoes? He was
+never seen again; he probably sought a grave in the waters of the bay.
+
+But he had fulfilled his promise. He had been true in his heart as "the
+north wind to the river, the west wind to the sea, and the south wind to
+the flowers."
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+JONATHAN'S ESCAPE
+
+A Young Hero of Hadley who Fought at Turner's Falls in 1676
+
+
+Though the Indians of New England were for many years vastly superior in
+numbers to the white men, they were never wholly united, and their
+cowardice and lack of discipline were weaknesses for which their
+treachery and deceit could not compensate. The long conflict between the
+races culminated in 1675 in King Philip's War, when the wily Wampanoag
+sachem succeeded in forming a confederation, embracing nearly all the
+New England tribes, for a final desperate struggle.
+
+It seemed for a time as though the combination might succeed. At the end
+of the summer the scattered settlements, and especially those along the
+Connecticut River, which formed the outposts of the colonies, were
+panic-stricken. Everywhere the savage allies had been victorious. A
+dozen towns had been attacked and burned, bands of soldiers had been cut
+off, and isolated murders without number had been committed. Prowling
+bands of Indians lurked about the stockaded towns, driving off cattle
+and rendering impossible the cultivation of the fields, so that the
+settlers were called upon to face starvation as well as the
+scalping-knife and tomahawk.
+
+There was no meeting the Indians face to face, except by surprise. They
+fought from ambush, or by sudden assault on unprotected points, and
+would be gone before troops could be brought to the scene. The white men
+were unable to follow them without Indian allies, and they were slow to
+adapt themselves to the Indian mode of fighting. Flushed by their
+success, the confederates became overconfident, and grew to despise
+their clumsy opponents. In the spring of 1676 more than five thousand
+of them were encamped on the Connecticut River, twenty miles north of
+Hadley. Here they planted their corn and squashes, and amused themselves
+with councils, ceremonies, and feasts, boasting of what they had done
+and what they would do. They judged the white men by themselves, and did
+not suspect the iron courage and stubborn determination that were urging
+the people in the towns below them "to be out against the enemy." On the
+night of May 18th they indulged in a great feast, and after it was over,
+slept soundly in their bark lodges, all but the wary Philip, who,
+scenting danger, had withdrawn across the river.
+
+On that same evening about two hundred and fifty men and boys gathered
+in Hadley street. Of this number fifty-six were soldiers from the
+garrisons of Hadley, Northampton, Springfield, Hatfield, and Westfield.
+The rest were volunteers, among whom was Jonathan Wells, of Hadley,
+sixteen years old, whose adventures and miraculous escape have been
+preserved.
+
+The party was under the command of Captain William Turner, and the
+expedition which it was about to undertake was inspired by a daring
+amounting to rashness. The plan was to attack the Indian camp, which
+contained four times their number of well-armed braves. Defeat meant
+death, or captivity and torture worse than death. The march began after
+nightfall so as not to attract the attention of the Indian scouts, and
+the little band made its way safely through swamps and forests, past the
+Indian outposts, and at daybreak arrived in the neighborhood of the
+camp. Here the horses were left under a small guard among the trees,
+while the men crept forward to the lodges of the enemy.
+
+The surprise was complete. The panic-stricken savages, crying that the
+dreaded Mohawks were upon them, were shot down by scores, or, plunging
+into the river, were swept over the falls which now bear Captain
+Turner's name. The backbone of Philip's conspiracy was broken, and he
+himself was driven to begin soon afterwards the hunted wanderings which
+were to end in the fatal morass.
+
+But the attacking party, though victorious, was not yet out of danger.
+It was still heavily outnumbered by the surviving Indians. While the
+soldiers were destroying arms, ammunition, and food, or scattered in
+pursuit of the fleeing enemy, the warriors rallied, and opened fire upon
+them from under cover of the trees. Captain Turner became alarmed and
+ordered a retreat. The main body hastily mounted and plunged into the
+forest, seeking to shake off the cloud of savages who hung upon their
+flanks like a swarm of angry bees.
+
+Young Jonathan was with a detachment of about twenty who were some
+distance up the river when the retreat began. They ran back to the
+horses and found their comrades gone. The Indians pressed upon them in
+numbers they could not hope to withstand. It was every man for himself.
+In the confusion the boy kept his wits about him, and managed to find
+his horse. As he plunged forward under the branches three Indians
+levelled their pieces and fired. One shot passed through his hair,
+another struck his horse, and the third entered his thigh, splintering
+the bone where it had been broken by a cart-wheel and never properly
+healed. He reeled, and would have fallen had he not clutched the mane of
+his horse. The Indians, seeing that he was wounded, pursued him, but he
+pointed his gun at them, and held them at bay until he was out of their
+reach. As he galloped on he heard a cry for help, and reining in his
+horse, regardless of the danger which encompassed him, found Stephen
+Belding, a boy of his own age, lying sorely wounded on the ground. He
+managed to pull him up behind, and they rode double until they overtook
+the party in advance. This brave act saved Belding's life.
+
+The retreat had become a rout. All was panic and dismay; but Jonathan
+was unwilling to desert the comrades left behind. He sought out Captain
+Turner, and begged him to halt and turn back to their relief. "It is
+better to save some than to lose all," was the Captain's answer. The
+confusion increased, and to add to it the guides became bewildered and
+lost their way. "If you love your lives, follow me!" cried one. "If you
+would see your homes again! follow me," shouted another, and the party
+was soon split up into small bands. The one with which Jonathan found
+himself became entangled in a swamp, where it was once more attacked by
+the Indians. He escaped again, with ten others, who, finding that his
+horse was going lame from his wound, and that he himself was weak from
+loss of blood, left him with another wounded man and rode away. His
+companion, thinking the boy's hurt worse than his own, concluded that he
+would stand a better chance of getting clear alone, and riding off on
+pretence of seeking the path, failed to return. Jonathan was now wholly
+deserted. Wounded, ignorant even of the direction of his home,
+surrounded by bloodthirsty Indians, and weak with hunger, he pushed
+desperately on. He was near fainting once, when he heard some Indians
+running about and whooping near by; but they did not discover him, and a
+nutmeg which he had in his pocket revived him for a time.
+
+After straying some distance farther he swooned in good earnest, and
+fell from his horse. When he came to he found that he had retained his
+hold on the reins, and that the animal stood quietly beside him. He tied
+him to a tree, and lay down again; but he soon grew so weak that he
+abandoned all hope of escape, and out of pity loosed the horse and let
+him go. He succeeded in kindling a fire by flashing powder in the pan of
+his gun. It spread in the dry leaves and burned his hands and face
+severely. Feeling sure that the Indians would be attracted by the smoke
+and come and kill him, he threw away his powder-horn and bullets,
+keeping only ammunition for a single shot. Then he stopped his wound
+with tow, bound it up with his neckcloth, and went to sleep.
+
+In the morning he found that the bleeding had stopped and that he was
+much stronger. He managed to find a path which led him to a river which
+he remembered to have crossed on the way to the camp. With great pain
+and difficulty, leaning on his gun, the lock of which he was careful to
+keep dry, he waded through it, and fell exhausted on the farther bank.
+While he lay there an Indian in a canoe appeared, and the boy, who could
+neither fight nor run, gave himself up for lost. But he remembered the
+three Indians in the woods, and putting a bold face on the matter, aimed
+his gun, though its barrel was choked with sand. The savage, thinking he
+was about to shoot, leaped overboard, leaving his own gun in the canoe,
+and ran to tell his friends that the white men were coming again.
+
+Jonathan knew that pursuit was certain, and as it was broad daylight,
+and he could only hobble at best, he assured himself that there was no
+hope for him. Nevertheless he looked about for a hiding-place, and
+presently, a little distance away, noticed two trees which, undermined
+by the current, had fallen forward into the stream close together. A
+mass of driftwood had lodged on their trunks. Jonathan got back into the
+water so as to leave no tracks, and creeping between the trunks under
+the driftwood, found a space large enough to permit him to breathe. In a
+few minutes the Indians arrived in search of him, as he had expected.
+They ransacked the whole neighborhood, even running out upon the mat of
+driftwood over his head, and causing the trees to sink with their weight
+so as to thrust his head under water; but they could find no trace of
+him, and at last retired, completely outwitted.
+
+The boy limped on, tortured by hunger and thirst, and so giddy with
+weakness that he could proceed but a short distance without stopping to
+rest. Happily he saw no more of the Indians, and at last, on the third
+day of his painful journey, he arrived at Hadley, where he was welcomed
+as one risen from the dead.
+
+The story of his escape was told for years around the wide fireplaces
+throughout the country-side, and was thought so remarkable that one who
+heard it, unwilling that the record of so much coolness and courage
+should be lost, wrote it down for future generations of boys to read.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+THE CROWN OF AN AMERICAN QUEEN
+
+In the Days of Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia
+
+
+In the age when America was but a name and Virginia only a hamlet, there
+was a dusky queen who wore a silver crown by order of his most sacred
+Majesty King Charles II., King of England, Scotland, France, Ireland,
+and Virginia.
+
+There are few distinct Indian personalities. Powhatan, Pocahontas,
+Opechancanough, Totopotomoi and his wife, the Queen of the Pamunkeys,
+are savage heroes who sentinel the seventeenth century; they all
+belonged to the Pamunkey tribe of the great Powhatan Confederacy, the
+most powerful Indian combination that ever existed.
+
+When the boisterous and heroic Nathaniel Bacon[A] was in the flush of
+his wonderful success, and had brought his followers to Jamestown, he
+demanded of the Governor redress for Indian depredations and outrages.
+When the Assembly in council was sitting, the Queen of the Pamunkeys
+came in, leading her son by the hand. She came to tell of grievances
+also. She wore a dress of black and white wampum peake and a mantle of
+deer-skin, "cut in a frenge" six inches from the outer edge. It fell
+loosely from her shoulders to her feet. On her head was a crown of
+"purple bead of shell, drilled." She was a beautiful woman, old
+chronicles tell us, and she walked in with a proud but aggrieved
+countenance.
+
+[A] Nathaniel Bacon, patriot, born in England, 1642; settled in
+    Gloucester County, Virginia, 1670; led an independent force
+    against hostile Indians in 1675-76 in spite of Governor
+    Berkeley's opposition; as the head of the republican movement
+    he came into open conflict with Berkeley and the royalists; he
+    captured and burned Jamestown in September, 1676; died the
+    following October; known as a rebel, but the principles for
+    which he fought were in the main those of independence and
+    patriotism.
+
+She sat down in the midst of the Assembly, listening eagerly to the
+arguments for the suppression and, if need be, the extinction of her
+race. And she remembered Totopotomoi bleeding for these people who would
+not recognize her rights. She arose and made a speech in her own tongue,
+eloquent with gesticulation; the refrain of it was a mad wail:
+"Totopotomoi chepiak!" (_i.e._, Totopotomoi dead).
+
+Colonel Hill, the younger, touched a fellow-member on the shoulder, and
+whispered: "What she says is true. Totopotomoi fought with my father,
+and fell with his warriors."
+
+But the Assembly would not listen to the poor suffering Queen. They
+wanted to fight more battles, and the Queen of the Pamunkeys must
+furnish her quota.
+
+"How many men will you furnish?" asked Nathaniel Bacon. "How many will
+you give to fight and subdue the treacherous tribes which threaten our
+peace?"
+
+The Queen was silent. She remembered her husband and his slain braves.
+She had fears for her son, and she would not speak.
+
+"How many?" asked Bacon.
+
+The poor Queen had her head turned away and bowed.
+
+"How many?" demanded the famous rebel again.
+
+Then she slowly turned her lovely face, and softly whispered, "Six."
+
+Her answer infuriated Bacon, who considered the number contemptible.
+"How many more?" he asked.
+
+The Queen gave him a glance of indignant hate, and haughtily answered,
+"Twelve." Then she gathered her robes about her, and majestically left
+the room.
+
+Once more we see the Queen of the Pamunkeys, and now in fear and
+adversity. Bacon in his campaign destroyed the Pamunkey settlement--the
+same tribe which had so nobly assisted the English.
+
+The poor Queen, terrified, fled far into the forest, accompanied by
+"onely a little Indian boy." Her old nurse followed her, but was
+captured. Bacon ordered the old woman to guide him to a certain point,
+but she, full of revenge, led him in an opposite direction, whereupon
+the rebel ordered her to be knocked in the head.
+
+The Queen wandered about almost crazy, and at last determined to return
+and throw herself upon Bacon's mercy; but as she was rushing towards her
+desolated wigwam she came upon the body of her murdered nurse, which so
+affrighted her that she ran back into the wilderness, where she remained
+"fourteen daies without food, and would have perished but that she
+gnawed on the legg of a terrapin which the little Indian boy brought
+her."
+
+So only a few vivid sketches of this Queen are preserved to us in
+history but they have gained for her a place as a martyr. In recognition
+of her own and her husband's deeds, Charles II. bestowed upon her a
+silver crown, with the lion of England, the lilies of France, and the
+harp of Ireland engraved thereon.
+
+Savages are not averse to the baubles of civilization, and the crown
+which their Queen wore was a blessed treasure to her tribe for a hundred
+years after the Queen was dead.
+
+The Pamunkey tribe, or a pitiful remnant of them, still dwell in
+Virginia, on the river which bears their name. They have a chief, and
+their own government. Annually they send tribute of fish and game and
+Indian handiwork to the Governor of Virginia. They are weakening
+physically, and pray for new blood from the Western reservation.
+
+Once the tribe started for the West, carrying their best treasure, the
+silver crown. They came to the plantation of Mr. Morson, at Falmouth,
+and there bad weather and sickness made them halt. Mr. Morson attended
+to their physical wants, and allowed them to pitch their tents upon his
+land until their distress abated.
+
+"What do we owe you?" asked the chief, when they had decided to return
+to their former Virginia reservation.
+
+"Nothing," said Mr. Morson. Perhaps he remembered Totopotomoi and his
+sorrowing Queen.
+
+"Then we will give you what we value most," and the chief presented to
+Mr. Morson the crown of the Queen of the Pamunkeys. For three
+generations it remained in the Morson family, and then it was purchased
+by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities.
+
+The crown is really a frontlet, and the Queen of the Pamunkeys wore it
+upon her brow, surmounted by a red velvet cap, long since destroyed by
+moths, and bound to her head by two silver chains.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+HOW A BLACKSMITH'S BOY BECAME A KNIGHT
+
+The Treasure-hunt of William Phipps in the late Seventeenth Century
+
+
+Sir William Phipps, Baronet; Captain in the Royal Navy; Captain-General
+and Commander-in-Chief of Massachusetts Bay; Governor of Massachusetts.
+
+What do you think of all these titles for one man to wear? Surely, you
+say, he must naturally have been a great man to deserve so much
+distinction; and again you say that the conditions of his life must
+account for such honors; that he must have been of gentle birth, reared
+in luxury, his education carefully attended by excellent masters, and
+great influence brought to bear upon his King to advance him so far on
+the high-road of fame. Well, let us see if facts will sustain this
+thought.
+
+William Phipps was born February 2, 1650, in a wretched log house on the
+banks of the Kennebec River. His father, an honest but ignorant
+blacksmith, was more dependent upon his rifle and fishing-line to supply
+his family with food than upon the occasional shilling that found its
+way into the smoke-begrimed interior of his rude workshop.
+
+Without education himself, the father was unable to instruct his
+children beyond the simplest rules of arithmetic and the plainest
+spelling and reading, but these he drilled them in as perseveringly as
+he did in the terrifying religious catechism of that day. In the course
+of years, when William developed into a robust, courageous lad, he
+shared with his parents the duties of providing for his sisters and
+brothers by either shouldering the heavy fire-arm and plunging into the
+dark Maine forests in quest of game, or in taking his father's place and
+beating out the iron sparks, while the sturdy smith dropped a
+temptingly baited hook into the swiftly flowing stream.
+
+In the year 1676, in his twenty-seventh year, the hero of our story
+received his parents' blessing, and left home for the purpose of seeking
+his fortune. With a hopeful heart and an exceedingly light pocket, he
+made his way to Boston, and found employment in the blacksmith-shop of
+one Roger Spencer, whose pretty daughter Charity soon won the heart of
+her father's handsome, stalwart helper.
+
+So far we fail to find very much in the way of gentle birth, luxury,
+education, and influence. But then, you may ask, how, under such
+circumstances, could he ever have risen so high? Let us follow his
+career.
+
+His lack of worldly goods was made the excuse for refusing the offer of
+his heart and hand that he made to the fair Puritan, and in the hope of
+improving his fortunes he forsook the forge and shipped on board of a
+merchant vessel to follow the adventurous life of a sailor. When saying
+farewell, he gave his promise to return in a few years with money enough
+to build a fair brick house for his lady-love in one of the green lanes
+of Boston.
+
+The ship in which Phipps sailed carried a cargo to the island of
+Jamaica, then cruised between that port and England for several voyages.
+Owing to his industry and ability as a seaman, Phipps was after a time
+advanced to the position of mate. A voyage or two following his
+promotion he fell in with an old seaman who claimed to be the only
+survivor of a Spanish vessel containing immense treasure that had been
+wrecked on one of the coral islands in the West Indies some years
+before. It appears that this treasure-ship had sailed from the coast of
+South America, freighted with a cargo of silver which had been dug out
+of the mines and cast into bricks to be conveyed to Spain. The sailor
+assured Mr. Phipps that the exact location of the wreck was known to
+him, and agreed, for a certain share of the profits, to conduct an
+expedition to the place where the vessel had gone down. Believing the
+story to be true, the mate bound the seaman to secrecy, and gave him a
+berth on board his vessel.
+
+Upon arriving in London, application was made by him to the King for
+permission and aid to fit out a ship for the purpose of recovering a
+great treasure that had been lost by the sinking of a Spanish galleon in
+the West Indies, claiming that he had accidentally learned the location
+of the vessel, and that he would guarantee to secure the precious cargo.
+After considerable delay a ship called the _Algier Rose_ was placed
+under his command, and with a crew of ninety men he set sail. Upon
+reaching the West Indies a mutiny broke out among the forecastle hands,
+and Captain Phipps found it necessary to put into Jamaica, discharge all
+hands, and ship a new company. He now started for the scene of the
+wreck, but a day or two following the carpenter informed him that he had
+overheard the sailors plot to capture the vessel as soon as the treasure
+was recovered, and use the craft thereafter as a pirate. The Captain
+immediately decided to return to England, where he arrived after a
+stormy passage. Under the patronage of the Duke of Albemarle the ship
+was refitted, and a trustworthy crew put on board.
+
+The second voyage across the Atlantic was pleasant and speedy, but just
+after entering the Caribbean Sea a new danger threatened the
+adventurers, for early one morning they encountered a large Spanish
+frigate, which at once started in chase of them. Captain Phipps
+addressed his crew, telling them that if they permitted their ship to be
+captured they would be sent into the interior of the country as slaves,
+to drag out their lives in the silver-mines. He bade them fight bravely
+if they wished to enjoy home and freedom ever again. The superior speed
+of the Spaniard soon enabled that vessel to open fire on the _Algier
+Rose_, which so heartily returned the compliment that some of the
+foreigner's spars were shot away, making her fall astern of her saucy
+enemy, who now succeeded in escaping. Without further trouble the
+treasure-hunters reached the island on whose treacherous coral reefs the
+silver-ship had been wrecked. Here the _Algier Rose_ was safely moored,
+and search commenced for the sunken wealth.
+
+The small boats were used to explore the reefs, and served as platforms
+from which the best swimmers in the crew would dive into the channels
+between the walls of coral on the lee side of the island, endeavoring to
+locate the spot where the galleon had been carried before she struck. As
+the water in these places seldom exceeded twenty feet in depth, the
+bottom would have been plainly visible from the boat had it not been for
+the continuous rippling and foaming of the surface water. Several weeks
+were passed in a vain pursuit, and at last, worn out and discouraged,
+the men positively refused to continue the work. By agreeing to abandon
+the enterprise and set sail for England at the end of another week,
+unless some success was met with, the Captain prevailed upon several of
+his seamen to aid him for that length of time.
+
+Day after day went by, and the seventh and last day specified in the
+agreement arrived. Two of the divers had broken down under the strain,
+and now when the final trial was to be made the Captain called for two
+men to go in their stead, but no one responded. He then appealed to
+their manhood, asked them if he had not shared all their labors, and
+asked them to give him but one day more. The dispirited sailors made no
+response to the appeal, but the cook volunteered to go if some one would
+take his place in the galley. This man was a negro about thirty years of
+age, and had been shipped in England to act as a cabin servant on the
+_Algier Rose_, but the ship's cook having died on the passage out, he
+had been sent into the caboose to take the former's place. Possessing a
+powerful physique and being an excellent swimmer, he stood by his
+Captain that day, the sole remaining hope, and seemed tireless in his
+efforts to find for the disheartened commander some evidence of the
+treasure, which the seamen swore existed only in the capsized brain of
+the man whom they could see out yonder under the broiling sun guiding
+the boat in and out of the channels, while the laughing, leaping waters
+tinkled against the bows and ran in gurgling, mocking glee along the
+side. The negro would dive into the sea, and a few moments later
+reappear; then, as he swam towards the boat, he would shake his head in
+answer to the anxious, questioning look in the Captain's eyes. The boat
+would move on again a short distance, and while the rowers held it
+stationary a dark form would part the water and sink down and down among
+the startled fishes, that flashed away in affright from the strange
+creature whose darting arms seemed to grasp at them as they shot for
+safety among the branches of coral underbush.
+
+The morning has passed gloomily away, and the negro plunges over the
+side for the last time before the men row back to the ship for dinner.
+Suddenly a black face in which is set two wildly rolling eyes bobs up
+alongside the boat, and a voice choking for breath and broken with
+excitement manages to gasp, "Him down thar, Massa Cap'n; him down thar!"
+
+The great treasure is discovered!
+
+No more despondency now. No more aching limbs. Splash, splash, splash!
+The rowers have torn off their scanty clothing, and jumped over the
+side to prove with their own eyes the story brought up to them from the
+bottom of the sea. One by one men reappear, and their recovered breath
+is used to send such a glad shout across the reefs that their shipmates
+hear it over a mile away, tumble into the boats alongside, and pull
+madly out to them; then learning the joyful news, they break into
+cheers, kick off their garments, and overboard they also go to see the
+ingots of silver scattered over the white sand amid the torn and broken
+remnants of the wreck.
+
+During the two weeks that followed the crew of the _Algier Rose_ worked
+zealously at recovering the wealth that the Spaniards had taken such
+pains to garner from the mountain range just back of the coast. A
+shallow net-work bag was hitched together by the seamen for the purpose
+of holding the bars of silver that the divers would throw into it. Those
+manning the float that had been constructed would lower the rope cradle
+until it rested on the bottom; then the diver would thrust his feet
+into a pair of heavy lead slippers and drop through the hole in the
+centre of the raft which was anchored above the wreck. An instant later,
+when the bed of sand was reached, the diver would quickly select and
+throw a brick of metal into the basket, drop his clumsy foot-gear into
+the same receptacle, and then, relieved of the weight which had held him
+down, he would shoot up to the surface of the water. Accepting his
+reappearance as a signal, the men on the float would haul up the net,
+lift out the treasure, and pass it into the small boats to be carried to
+the ship. At the end of a fortnight, when the divers reported that the
+last bar had been gathered, the Captain calculated that he had recovered
+fully thirty tons of pure silver.
+
+The stone in the lower hold was thrown overboard to make room for the
+noble ballast, which was carefully stowed and wedged in its mean and
+gloomy quarters under the decks. The _Algier Rose_ now sailed for
+England, where she arrived safely five weeks from the day that her
+anchor had been hove up from its resting-place on the white coral bed
+off the treasure island.
+
+Captain Phipps's share of the profits was very large, but the exact
+amount is unknown. In addition to a princely revenue, the King was so
+much pleased with him for bringing such wealth into the country that he
+conferred on him the honor of knighthood, and to reward him still
+further for having beaten off the Spanish man-of-war, his Majesty was
+pleased to grant him a commission as Captain in the Royal Navy.
+
+Sir William soon sailed for Boston in command of a fine frigate, and a
+reunion with the now-envied Charity was speedily followed by the tying
+of a true-lover's knot before the altar of the old meeting-house near
+the fort. A few months later the former blacksmith's boy redeemed his
+promise by presenting to my lady "a fair brick house in one of the green
+lanes of Boston." This residence, which was erected on Salem Street,
+stood until a few years ago, being last used as an orphan asylum for
+boys. In 1690 Sir William was named by the King, Captain-General and
+Commander-in-Chief of Massachusetts Bay, and several years later
+received a royal patent as Governor of Massachusetts.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE GIRL CAPTAIN OF CASTLE DANGEROUS
+
+How Three Children Fought the Iroquois in 1692
+
+
+Among all the incidents of endurance and pluck set forth in the annals
+of the history of North America, few can be found more remarkable than
+that which is contained in some very dusty pages to be read in quaint
+French in a Paris library, or in the transcription of them by one of our
+own historical authors--the "Statement of Mademoiselle Magdeleine de
+Vercheres, aged Fourteen Years," daughter of the commander of a lonely
+French fort, called after her father, which stood on the St. Lawrence
+River a score of miles below Montreal.
+
+It was October 22, 1692. The strong fort enclosure, stockade and
+block-house, were open, and the residents were at work in their fields
+at some distance. M. de Vercheres was at Quebec on military business.
+His wife (who was the heroine of another famous incident of those
+perilous days) had gone to Quebec. In the stockade were actually only
+two soldiers, a couple of lads who were the young girl's brothers, one
+very aged man, and a few women and children. Magdeleine--or, as we
+should now spell it, Madeleine--was standing at a considerable distance
+from the open gate of the fort with a servant, little suspecting any
+danger.
+
+All at once a rattle of arms from the direction where some of the
+agriculturists were busy startled her. It was repeated. She began to see
+men running in terror in the far-away fields. At the same moment the
+serving-man beside her, equally astonished, exclaimed, "Run,
+Mademoiselle, run; the Iroquois are upon us!" The young girl looked
+where he pointed, and lo! a troop of some forty or fifty of the wily
+savages, thinking to surprise the stockade while their main band
+attacked those who were outside, were running towards the gates,
+scarcely a hundred yards from where she stood trembling. There was not
+an instant to lose. It was life or death for her and all. She fled for
+the fort. The rest of her story can largely be quoted from Mademoiselle
+Madeleine's own recitation, published at the time.
+
+"The Iroquois who chased me, seeing that they could not catch me alive
+before I reached the gate, stopped and fired at me. The bullets whistled
+about my ears, and [as she says, dryly] made the time seem very long. As
+soon as I was near enough to be heard, I cried out, 'To arms! to arms!'
+hoping that somebody would come out and help me, but it was no use. The
+two soldiers in the fort were so terrified that they had hidden within
+the block-house.
+
+"At the gate I found two women crying for their husbands, who had just
+been killed. I forced them to go in and shut the gate. I next thought
+what I could do to save myself and the few people with me. I went to
+inspect the fort, and found that several palisades had fallen down and
+left openings by which the enemy could easily get in. I ordered them to
+be set up again, and helped to carry them myself."
+
+It may be asked how there was sufficient time for this necessary work.
+But it must be remembered that the Indians seldom came directly to the
+stockade in daylight, dreading concealed defenders greatly, and in the
+present instance they were ignorant of the singularly unprotected state
+of this fort. So the brave little girl was able to prepare for the worst
+with all her wonderful presence of mind and courage. She continues:
+
+"When all the breaches were stopped, I went to the block-house, where
+the ammunition is kept, and here I found the two soldiers, one hiding in
+a corner, and the other with a lighted match in his hand. 'What are you
+going to do with that match?' I asked. He answered, 'Set off the powder
+and blow us all up!' 'You are a miserable coward,' said I. 'Go out of
+this place!' I spoke so resolutely that he obeyed. I then threw off my
+bonnet, and after putting on a hat and taking a gun I said to my
+brothers: 'Let us fight to the death. We are fighting for our country
+and our religion. Remember that our father has taught you that gentlemen
+are born to shed their blood for the service of God and the King.'"
+
+Getting her little company together in the stockade, and discovering the
+Iroquois moving about the fields, and either pursuing the unfortunate
+men and women in them, or else discussing the best means of advancing,
+Madeleine began firing at them from various loop-holes, and directed a
+cannon to be discharged to deter them from coming nearer, and at the
+same time to spread the alarm over the vicinity. The women and children
+shrieked and clamored. She made them be silent, for fear of letting the
+redskins suspect the situation. The foe drew back and remained quiet for
+a time, and as they did this a canoe with several persons in it was seen
+out upon the river coming swiftly to the dock near the fort. It was
+evident that those in it did not suspect the danger that was so near,
+whatever else they had heard. It was possible to save them from
+slaughter, and at the same time add the settler she recognized in the
+canoe, with his family, to the little garrison. Madeleine went out
+alone--none other dared--from the stockade to the dock, and received
+them.
+
+The Indians, seeing only a little girl meet the new arrivals, feared a
+grand sortie if they dashed out of their ambush, and allowed Madeleine
+to escort the new-comers--a settler named Fontaine and his party--into
+the fort gates unhurt. She had hoped for this, and was overjoyed at her
+success. Her garrison now numbered six. She goes on:
+
+"Strengthened by this reinforcement, I ordered that the enemy should be
+fired on whenever they showed themselves. After sunset a violent
+northeast wind began to blow, accompanied by snow and hail, which told
+us we should have a terrible night. The Iroquois were all this time
+lurking about us, and I judged by their movements that, instead of being
+deterred by the storm, they would climb into the fort under cover of the
+darkness. I assembled all my troop (that is to say, six persons), and
+spoke to them thus: 'God has saved us to-day from the hands of our
+foes, but we must take care not to fall into their snares to-night. As
+for me, I want you to see that I am not afraid. I will take charge of
+the fort, with the old man [she adds that he was eighty, and had never
+fired a gun, but he could probably carry an alarm]; and you, Pierre
+Fontaine, with La Bonte and Gachet, go to the block-house with the women
+and children, because that is the strongest place; and if I am taken,
+don't surrender, even if I am cut to pieces and burned before your eyes.
+The enemy cannot hurt you in the block-house, if you make the least show
+of fight.'
+
+"I placed my young brothers on two of the bastions, the old man on the
+third, and I took the fourth; and all night, in spite of wind, snow, and
+hail, the cries of 'All's well!' were kept up from the block-house to
+the fort, and from the fort to the block-house. One would have thought
+that the place was full of soldiers. The Iroquois believed so, and were
+completely deceived, as they confessed afterwards to M. de Callieres, to
+whom they told that they had held a council to make a plan for
+capturing the fort in the night, but had done nothing because such a
+constant watch was kept.
+
+"About one o'clock in the morning the sentinel [the old man] on the
+bastion by the gate called out, 'Mademoiselle, I hear something!' I went
+to him to find out what it was, and by the help of the snow which
+covered the ground I could see in the darkness a number of cattle, the
+miserable remnant that the Iroquois had left us. The others wanted to
+open the gate and let them in, but I answered: 'No. You don't know all
+the tricks of the savages. They are, no doubt, following the cattle,
+covered with skins of such animals, so as to get into the fort if we are
+foolish enough to open the gate for them.' Nevertheless, after taking
+every precaution, I decided that we might open it without risk.
+
+"At last the daylight came again, and as the darkness disappeared our
+anxieties seemed to disappear with it. Everybody took courage excepting
+Madame Marguerite, wife of the Sieur Fontaine, who, being extremely
+timid, as all Parisian women are, asked her husband to carry her to
+another fort. [A silly request, certainly.] He said, 'I will never
+abandon this fort while Mademoiselle Madeleine is here.' I answered him
+that I would rather die than give it up to the enemy, and that it was of
+the greatest importance that they should never get possession of any
+French fort, because if they took _one_ they would think they could get
+others, and would grow more bold and presumptuous than ever.
+
+"I may say, with truth, that I did not eat nor sleep for twice
+twenty-four hours. I did not go once into my father's house, but kept
+always on the bastion, or went to the block-house to see how the people
+there were behaving. I always kept a cheerful and smiling face, and
+encouraged my little company with the hope of speedy succor.
+
+"We were one week in constant alarm, with the enemy always about us. At
+last M. de la Monnerie, a lieutenant sent by M. de Callieres, arrived in
+the night with forty men. [He came down the river.] As he did not know
+whether the fort was taken or not, he approached as silently as
+possible. One of our sentinels, hearing a slight sound, cried, 'Who goes
+there?' I was at the time dozing, with my head on a table and my gun
+lying across my arms. The sentinel told me that he heard a voice from
+the river. I went up at once to the bastion to see whether it was of
+Indians or Frenchmen. I demanded, 'Who goes there?' One of them replied,
+'We are Frenchmen; it is De la Monnerie, come to bring you help.' I
+caused the gate to be opened, placed a sentinel there, and went down to
+the river to meet them. As soon as I saw M. de la Monnerie I saluted him
+and said, 'Monsieur, I resign my arms to you.' He answered, gallantly,
+'Mademoiselle, they are in good hands.' 'Better than you suppose,' I
+returned. He inspected the fort and found everything in order and a
+sentinel on each bastion. 'It is time to relieve them, monsieur,' said
+I; 'we have not been off our bastions for a week.'"
+
+M. de la Monnerie in astonished admiration took charge of the relieved
+fort. The heroine's work was over. The savages fled, and not long after
+they were captured near Lake Champlain, and some twenty persons they had
+made prisoners at Vercheres were brought safely back. The father and
+mother of Madeleine came from Montreal and Quebec, and heard the story
+of her valor and coolness with rapturous praise. She grew up to be a
+woman, receiving for her life a pension from the King of France as a
+mark of honor, and she died at an advanced age.
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+HOW MARC WAS MADE CAPTAIN
+
+A Rescue from the "Lords of the Woods" in 1695
+
+
+One evening in the winter of 1694-95 a dozen young men were lounging
+around the fire in the big room of the storehouse at St. Maxime, a small
+settlement on the St. Lawrence River. The door opened and two others
+entered, brushing the snow from their leggings and moccasins.
+
+"What luck with your traps?" cried one of the loungers.
+
+"An otter and eight beaver," answered Noel Duroc, as he tossed a pack of
+pelts into the corner. He was a tall, straight young Frenchman, whose
+gay and careless nature looked out frankly through a pair of laughing
+black eyes. "But come, Madame Bouvier," he cried to the store-keeper's
+wife, "give us something to eat; hot, and plenty of it--eh, Philippe! If
+you want news, there's more than news of traps--it's of the Iroquois.
+'Tis said they're ready for a raid to the north--to make glad the hearts
+of their good friends the Algonquins and the French. So our old bear of
+a seigneur may do some hugging. But to-night he has other things to
+think of. Marc is home--came up along the river from Quebec to-day."
+
+"Is he as much of a monk as 'twas said he would be?" asked Jean Bourdo.
+"You know the old seigneur swears he will have no monk's scholar around
+him--though he were twice his nephew."
+
+"We have just seen Marc, and, trust me, he is the same jolly lad he was
+two years ago. You can make no grave-faced monk of him! But the old
+seigneur thinks him surely spoiled. 'Twere better Marc had not seen the
+monastery--not that I lack as a churchman; what would we do at St.
+Maxime were it not for our good Father Auguste, who taught us when we
+were boys, and keeps us straight now that we are men?--for if he had
+stayed here he would doubtless be our captain--a post worth having, now
+that the Iroquois are like to visit us."
+
+"Who will be our captain?" asked Jean Bourdo.
+
+"The seigneur has sent to Quebec for an officer--one that's lately from
+France, and that's been well trained in the King's army. The old man
+knows how much we sympathize with Marc, and so, being surly as a bear,
+he will have none of us."
+
+"It may be a costly mistake, this putting of an Old-World soldier over
+us," said Jean. "'Tis true we have small knowledge of the science of war
+as taught in old France; but we can fight in the woods, and know how to
+beat the Iroquois at their own game, and I'll warrant that's more than
+this fine soldier can do! 'Tis a pity that Marc--a lad brought up in the
+woods, whom we all like and would gladly follow--should be kept back
+just because madame his mother sent him to school to the monks. But the
+old seigneur will have his way, even when 'tis to his harm!"
+
+"So he will; and if Marc is to lead us, the seigneur must be made to
+think that it is his own doing. Come, Philippe," continued Noel, turning
+to the man who had come in with him, "you are older than the rest, and
+have a wiser head; think of some way of bending the seigneur to our
+purpose."
+
+They talked till far into the night, and when they separated the young
+Frenchmen had the cheerful and impatient air of men (or boys, for so
+they would now be counted) who had planned an undertaking and were in a
+hurry to carry it out.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+In the afternoon of the next day old Antoine de la Carre, seigneur of
+the score of log-houses and the vast tract of woodland belonging to the
+royal settlement of St. Maxime, marshalled his fighting force. In front
+of the storehouse was an open space, from which the snow was kept clear,
+and here the soldiers of St. Maxime were drawn up in line. There were
+about forty of them all told, half of their number being young men,
+voyageurs, and _coureurs des bois_; the others were older, heads of
+families who devoted themselves to the more peaceful occupations of
+fishing and farming.
+
+"I have news," said Antoine de la Carre, "that the Iroquois are moving,
+so it behooves us to make ready for them. You older men shall act as a
+reserve; the younger ones I will organize into a company always to be
+under arms and ready to repel attack. Noel Duroc, I appoint you
+lieutenant, to have charge till the officer who is to be your captain
+comes from Quebec. Be active in your duty, and see that you leave
+nothing undone that is for the good of the settlement."
+
+"We'll do what we think is best for the settlement, and he'll find us
+active enough--that's certain!" whispered Jean Bourdo, nudging his
+neighbor.
+
+In the ranks of the younger men was a tall, dark-haired lad who had the
+same bold features that belonged to the old seigneur. All observed him,
+for it was Marc Larocque's first appearance after his two years' stay in
+Quebec. He met his uncle's sour looks with unflinching, smiling eyes,
+and the settlers whispered among themselves that the old seigneur would
+find it no easy matter to ignore his nephew--he had the De la Carre
+spirit, in spite of the monks and their book-learning.
+
+That evening was a gloomy one in the house of Antoine de la Carre. The
+old man sat in silence, drinking deep draughts of red French wine;
+across the room was his sister, the widow Larocque, teaching their
+catechism to two little maids. He knew she thought him unfair to her
+son, who, by right of birth and his own qualities, had reason to expect
+a place of authority at St. Maxime, and this knowledge made the old
+seigneur more than usually irritable. When the children had finished
+reading their tasks and left the room he broke out:
+
+"Ha, Madeleine, you look so solemn, doubtless, because of your dear
+Marc! Well, why did you send him to the monks to have a scholar made out
+of him? You know how I despise these long-faced readers of musty books,
+yet you must thwart me in this way. I'll not forgive you nor him. I had
+no fault to find in the old days--then he was a good lad enough, and a
+true De la Carre. But I tell you now, as I told you two years ago when
+you talked of sending him to Quebec, that I'll have no bookman for a
+nephew. So you've only yourself to blame if he be set aside. But you
+were always obstinate."
+
+"Ah, almost as obstinate as you, Antoine. But I'll not trouble about
+Marc; if you'll not help him, there are others that will. In these
+stirring times a boy like him is not forgotten."
+
+After a pause he burst out again: "What folly it was! Has a lad here, in
+our rugged New France, any need of court manners and monk's learning? If
+you had sent him to learn war it would have been different. But to a
+monastery! When a boy in old France, I was made to read Latin and dig
+into musty manuscripts till they nearly made a philosopher of me. But I
+had the good sense to turn soldier, and since then I've had no liking
+for monks and their learning. Madeleine, you knew all this, and remember
+now--"
+
+He was interrupted by a crash. The door was burst open and half a dozen
+Indians sprang into the room. Before Antoine could draw his dagger they
+had leaped upon him, seized his arms, and smothered his shouts. Madame
+Larocque was quickly and securely bound hand and foot and gagged.
+
+The Iroquois--for by their paint and dress the old man thought his
+captors to belong to the dreaded tribes of the Five Nations--worked
+noiselessly and swiftly; in less than five minutes from the bursting in
+of the door they led out Antoine de la Carre, his hands tied behind his
+back, and a piece of leather so fastened over his mouth that he could
+make no sound. The guards that should have been watching were nowhere to
+be seen, and the Indians, with their prisoner, quickly scaled the
+stockade, crept across a cleared space to the woods, hurried to the
+river, and were soon on the smooth, wind-swept ice and moving rapidly
+westward. "Where were those young rascals of my company when I needed
+them?--drinking in the storehouse or dancing in one of the cabins, most
+like!" growled old Antoine to himself.
+
+He was as strong as an old bear, but his joints were stiffened with age,
+and he had difficulty in keeping up with the rapid pace of the Indians.
+"What sinews these Iroquois have!" he thought, as he struggled on. "No
+Algonquin could hold his own with them; they run as well as our own
+young _coureurs des bois_!"
+
+When it became evident that he could go no farther, they stopped their
+journey along the ice and, turning into the forest, went about a quarter
+of a mile from the river's bank. Here they found a dense evergreen
+thicket and prepared to make their camp. A fire was built, and some
+strips of dried meat they carried were heated and eaten; then they
+stretched themselves on evergreen boughs which had been piled on the
+snow near the fire. A tall young Indian, who seemed to be the leader of
+the little band, now turned to Antoine de la Carre and, much to his
+surprise, spoke to him in French.
+
+"Old man, eat and warm yourself. We have far to go, and you are not yet
+to die."
+
+Antoine obeyed, and after he had managed to swallow some of the tough
+meat he felt better. "How do you, that are of the Iroquois, who trade
+with the English and Dutch, come to speak French?" he asked of the young
+Indian.
+
+"A French girl was brought a captive to our tribe; my father, who was a
+great warrior, took her for his squaw, and she was my mother. She taught
+me the language of the French, and taught me also to listen to the words
+of the black-robed Jesuits who used to come south to teach the Iroquois.
+My mother loved my father, and bade me fight the enemies of his people,
+and so I am here. But I wish the Jesuit teachers would come among the
+Iroquois as they used to do. I liked to hear them talk in that strange
+tongue they called the Latin."
+
+"Did you?" said Antoine, glad to make friends with the young Iroquois.
+"When young I was taught by the monks, and know some Latin."
+
+"That is well," returned the Indian, with much satisfaction. "I too was
+a pupil of the monks, and always listened to them gladly. Stand up and
+repeat to us some of the Latin you learned. When the good Jesuit would
+talk in that tongue to my mother and to me, the words came like music,
+and then he would tell us the meaning--it told of adventures and battles
+and great warriors. Repeat to us this musical tongue."
+
+Antoine de la Carre would rather have fought a bull moose single-handed;
+but here was no choice, and he stood up and did his best. That was not
+very well; for his voice was as hoarse as a swamp-raven's, and it was
+many years since he had looked in a book.
+
+The Iroquois lying around on the evergreen boughs were greatly amused at
+his efforts, laughing at his hoarse voice and at his stammering over the
+Latin words.
+
+"You do not do it as well as did the Jesuit," exclaimed the half-breed.
+"Be careful, Frenchman! Remember, I am no dull log of a Montagnais--I am
+an Iroquois, a lord of the woods, and will have no trifling!"
+
+Antoine stammered on, getting more angry each moment; for to a proud old
+soldier like him nothing was worse than appearing ridiculous. But this
+was a matter of life and death, and he suppressed his feelings. "'Tis
+well my young scamps of _coureurs des bois_ cannot see me now," he
+thought. "They'd never stop laughing!"
+
+"Look more cheerful, Frenchman!" said the tall half-breed, getting to
+his feet. "What if you are to die to-morrow; surely death has no terrors
+for so great a scholar and philosopher! And come, when you are talking
+to warriors of the Iroquois take off your cap!" Antoine wore his black
+velvet house-cap, and as the Iroquois spoke he stepped forward and
+plucked it from the old man's head.
+
+Antoine had been able to keep down his anger at their laughing, but this
+was too much for his small stock of patience, which already was sorely
+tried. He was desperate and reckless, for death was fairly certain under
+any circumstances, and it might as well come to-night as later.
+
+"Insolent--take that!" he exclaimed, and he struck out savagely.
+
+The tall half-breed, hit squarely between the eyes, went down as if
+before the blow of a sledge-hammer.
+
+Several of the Indians sprang to their feet and seized the old man. The
+half-breed got up slowly, half stunned. Antoine waited for his tomahawk
+to strike the death-blow, but the half-breed did not raise his arm to
+strike. "Old man," he said, "if I were like these other braves you would
+even now be dead; but, as I told you, I am a convert, and the Jesuit
+teaches that one must not be too quick in anger--especially with the old
+and foolish. You shall live, at least till to-morrow; give thanks that
+I, like yourself, am a monk-taught man!"
+
+Soon afterwards the Iroquois arranged themselves to sleep, one of their
+number being left as a sentinel and guard over their prisoner. Antoine's
+hands and ankles were bound, and by the half-breed's orders he was laid
+on the boughs near the fire. One by one the Indians, save the guard,
+fell asleep; but the old Frenchman was too nervous and excited. Finally
+his attention was arrested by an object that was slowly and noiselessly
+stealing out from the evergreen thicket. It crept straight towards the
+Indian sentinel, who lay gazing up at the stars that shone through the
+tree-tops. Of a sudden there was a quick, stealthy movement and the
+gleam of a knife: the sentinel's head sank back, and he lay stretched
+out, still and motionless.
+
+"A skilful thrust!" thought Antoine. "I never saw a man die so easily."
+
+The man with the knife crept towards him, and in a moment Antoine felt
+that the thongs about his ankles and wrists were cut. The man beckoned
+and stole away; Antoine followed, and then they silently made their way
+into the thicket--leaving the Indians sleeping in the white starlight,
+the sentinel looking most peaceful of all.
+
+[Illustration: THE THONGS WERE CUT]
+
+"Do you know me, my uncle?" whispered Marc Larocque. "I tracked you
+through the snow. Follow me swiftly and quietly."
+
+Back they hurried to the river, and then began the journey over the ice
+down to St. Maxime.
+
+"I thought the Iroquois strong and fleet, Marc, but I see that none of
+them is a match for you! You are a brave fellow, in spite of the monks,
+and never shall I forget what you have done this night. But I wish you
+had thrust your knife into the heart of the leader of the Iroquois, an
+insolent fellow who pulled my cap from my head and laughed at me.
+However, I gave him a good buffet between the eyes!"
+
+Soon the old man began to lag behind, and Marc had to grasp his arm to
+help him; so they ran on through the white winter's night. With ghostly
+wings the great snowy owl flapped across their path, and the wolf pack
+halted for a moment to watch them pass, and then turned away to hunt
+again for some stray deer or wounded moose.
+
+It was almost dawn when they reached the stockade at St. Maxime. Old
+Antoine was exhausted, and had hardly strength enough to say to Marc:
+"Send a messenger to Quebec to tell the French officer he need not come.
+I have found a captain here."
+
+Marc took him to the seigneury, and he fell into a heavy sleep, from
+which he did not wake till afternoon. The soldiers were then at their
+daily drill, and after he had eaten, the old man went out where they
+were. Tall Lieutenant Noel Duroc was drilling them. Antoine de la Carre
+gave them all a severe scolding for their carelessness the night before.
+
+"If it were not for my brave nephew," he said, "I would surely have been
+murdered by the Iroquois. Marc, step out from the ranks. I make you
+captain!"
+
+A shout went up from all the men, but old Antoine silenced it with a
+gesture. He was looking at Noel Duroc. "Lieutenant, your face is black
+and blue; how were you hurt? You were not so yesterday!"
+
+"Last night, seigneur, an old bear gave me a buffet--and a good round
+blow it was!"
+
+Antoine looked at him hard. "Lieutenant, you had best let old bears
+alone!" Then he turned quickly to his nephew. "Marc, has that messenger
+yet started for Quebec who was to stop the French officer?"
+
+"He left soon after daybreak this morning."
+
+"Ah! you were not slow in sending him." The old man paused, and Noel,
+who was watching him closely, thought he saw his mouth twitch under the
+gray beard. "But never mind; it may be for the best. You shall be
+captain, my nephew, and you, Noel Duroc, shall be lieutenant, though I
+think you both rascals. However, no bookman could run as Marc did this
+morning; and so I know he is not wholly spoiled by the monks."
+
+"Bravo!" cried Noel Duroc, throwing up his cap. "Bravo! Here is a right
+good seigneur who knows what is best for his people; and a kind uncle;
+and--I'll pledge my word--a great scholar and philosopher too!"
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+CAPTAIN KIDD
+
+An Overrated Pirate
+
+
+Of all the pirates whose dreaded top-sails appeared along the coast of
+America in the old days of the colonies none has left a more grewsome
+and romantic reputation behind him than Captain William Kidd, the New
+York ship-master, who was born in 1650. Legends abound of his boldness,
+his craftiness, and his savage and blood-thirsty disposition, and
+stories of the immense treasure that he accumulated, the dreadful
+murders that he committed in its acquisition, and when and with what
+ghastly accompaniments he buried it are still told over the firesides of
+'longshore hamlets from Maine to the Carolinas.
+
+Fiction has not neglected to turn this pirate's career to its own
+purpose, and one of Poe's most imaginative and thrilling tales is based
+upon the discovery on Sullivan's Island, in Charleston Harbor (South
+Carolina), of a parchment which, on being held to the fire, revealed a
+cryptogram of Kidd's that led to the discovery of buried wealth
+amounting to millions of dollars.
+
+It seems almost a pity to tamper with the halo of romance and mystery
+which posterity has drawn about this worthy's brow, but the fact is that
+Kidd was an unready, unwise, and vacillating character, and that there
+was little truth in the romances told about him. Beside such dreadfully
+famous buccaneers as Blackbeard, Roberts, and Avery he appears a pygmy
+in his own "profession," and his career, when contrasted with theirs,
+seems colorless and contemptible.
+
+As to the vast riches that he was supposed to have acquired, it is
+doubtful if in his whole course of piracy he was able to accumulate more
+than a hundred thousand dollars. One thing is assured--the only money
+that he buried on the coast of America amounted to not more than
+seventy-five thousand dollars, which he hid on Gardiner's Island, over
+against New London, and the last penny of this was recovered by
+Bellamont after Kidd's execution.
+
+During King William's War Kidd, who was a handsome man of somewhat
+pleasing address, made the acquaintance of Lord Bellamont, the Governor
+of Barbadoes. The two were in New York at the time of the meeting, and
+as Kidd was a member of a good family and moved in the limited
+aristocratic circle of that day, the new acquaintances saw much of each
+other. Kidd's plausible tongue, fund of anecdote, and agreeable manner
+impressed the Governor so pleasantly that his liking for the shipman
+developed into esteem, and esteem into friendship. Through Bellamont's
+influence Kidd obtained command of a privateer, and a series of lucky
+events contributed to his reputation, so that when he returned to New
+York, after his cruise in the Gulf, Bellamont and his other fine friends
+hailed him with adulation as a conquering hero. He was wined and feted,
+was toasted by prominent men and noble dames, and over many a steaming
+bowl and long-stemmed pipe loosed his glib speech in a way to impress
+his hearers with a fine notion of his indomitable character. Through the
+thick clouds of the Virginia tobacco smoke a great idea was born in
+Bellamont's hazy brain. Complaints were made daily of the pirates that
+infested the shores of the colonies. These pirates were rich with
+plunder. True, they were skilful and bold and crafty, but here was a man
+who by his own confession was more skilful and bolder and craftier than
+any of them. Then, should Kidd be fitted out with a fine ship and a good
+crew to chase these pirates and capture them, great glory would come to
+Bellamont's name, and great good to Bellamont's pocket.
+
+The idea was acted upon, and the Governor and some other wealthy
+gentlemen purchased the _Adventure_ galley, equipped her, and armed her
+with thirty carronades, while Kidd went down among the docks and the
+sailors' lodging-houses, picking out for his crew sturdy two-handed
+mariners, men long of the sea, blowzed by the weather, browned by the
+wind, used to the pike and cutlass--men like ducks on the shore and like
+monkeys in the rigging.
+
+The ship was fitted out at Plymouth, and the great day of the sailing
+arrived at last. The _Adventure_ pushed out into the stream, Kidd
+smirking and bowing and striking attitudes on the quarter-deck, the busy
+sailors swarming aloft to loose sail, the good ship heeling over farther
+and farther as canvas after canvas was spread to a quartering breeze,
+and an assemblage of fine ladies and gorgeous beaux waving scarfs and
+fluttering handkerchiefs from the end of the pier.
+
+Armed with a commission from King William to apprehend the noted
+Captains "Thomas Tew, John Ireland, Thomas Wake, and William Maze, or
+Mace, and other subjects, natives or inhabitants of New York and
+elsewhere in our plantations in America, who have associated with
+others, wicked and ill-disposed persons, and do, against the laws of
+nations, commit many and great piracies, robberies, and depredations on
+the seas, upon the parts of America and in other parts, to the great
+danger of our loving subjects, our allies, and all others navigating the
+seas upon their lawful occasions," he steered from New York on his way
+to the Guinea coast, where his hunt was to begin. By the terms of his
+commission he was to take the aforenamed pirates by force if necessary,
+with all the pirates, freebooters, and rovers associated with them,
+wherever they were found. He was to bring them into port, with all such
+merchandise, money, goods, and wares as should be discovered on board.
+But he was strictly charged and commanded, "As you will answer the
+contrary at your peril, that you do not in any manner offend or molest
+our friends or allies, their ships or subjects, by whom or pretence of
+these presents or the authority thereby granted."
+
+Kidd had another commission, called Letters of Marque and Reprisal, to
+empower him to act against the French, with whom the English and their
+colonies were then at war, and under cover of these he captured a
+French merchantman off Fire Island on his way westward.
+
+Upon arriving at New York he began to request more assistance from his
+owners, complained of the size of his ship and his few guns, and, as he
+"proposed to deal with a desperate enemy," asked permission to increase
+his complement. This was granted, after some hesitation, and he finally
+sailed from New York with a ship's company of one hundred and fifty-five
+men.
+
+He made first for Madeira, thence to one of the Cape Verde Islands, and
+thence to St. Jago, in order to lay in salt provisions and other
+necessaries. He then rounded the Cape and bent his course towards
+Madagascar, whose waters were the known rendezvous of swarms of pirates.
+On the way he fell in with three English men-of-war, to whose commodore
+he imparted his errand with much pomp and circumstance. He dined aboard
+the flag-ship, and left behind him the same reputation for dare-devil
+recklessness and determination that his valiant speech had obtained for
+him elsewhere.
+
+He parted with these ships after a few days, and arrived at Madagascar
+in February, 1697, after a voyage of nine months.
+
+At this time most of the pirate ships were out in search of prey, so,
+having spent some time in watering his ship and taking aboard
+provisions, Kidd tried the coast of Malabar, where he was equally
+unsuccessful in finding his quarry. He touched at Mohila and at Johanna,
+both famous resorts for pirates, but he did not succeed even in getting
+news of those whom he sought. The reason seemed obvious--the pirate of
+those days was a dangerous man to tackle. He had guns, and he knew how
+to use them; he fought with a halter round his neck, and was game to the
+last gasp. He was in the habit of beating the King's ships sent to take
+him, and he had a bending plank through the lee gangway for their
+captured officers. A fat, rich merchantman was an easier victim. Why not
+sound the crew to see if they would agree to a change of policy?
+
+Some such thoughts must have been passing through Kidd's mind at this
+time, for with the gift of a brass farthing he could have purchased
+from the most guileless and affectionate native of Mohila or Johanna his
+entire confidence as to the whereabouts of his friends the sea-rovers,
+and yet after a cruise of many months in this infested neighborhood Kidd
+had no tidings of a single pirate craft.
+
+But however disposed towards acts of violence, he had not yet the
+courage to put his wishes into execution. On his second voyage past the
+island of Mohila he passed several Indian ships, richly laden and too
+weak to offer him resistance, but he contented himself with casting
+envious eyes upon them and suffered them to go.
+
+The first outrage that he committed was at Mabbee, in the Red Sea,
+where, after careening his ship, he took some corn from the natives by
+force. After this he sailed to Babs Key, near the Strait of
+Bab-el-Mandeb, where he first began to open himself to the ship's
+company, and to disclose to them his change of policy. But instead of
+coming out like a man and saying that he intended to turn to piracy, he
+hinted and insinuated and beat about the bush. "Unlucky have we been
+hitherto; but courage, my lads, we'll make our fortunes out of the Mocha
+fleet." This was the closest his pygmy heart could come to broaching the
+subject that occupied his mind. But his mariners met him more than
+half-way, and he found himself committed to buccaneering before he knew
+it. By the advice of his quartermaster (the first mate or executive
+officer of those days) he sent a boat to go upon the coast and make
+discoveries, while he himself kept men in the tops of the _Adventure_ to
+look out for the Mocha fleet.
+
+The boat returned in a few days, bringing word that fifteen or a score
+of ships were about ready to sail, and that they were well laden and
+rich.
+
+Four days after this the fleet appeared; the eager lookouts reported
+them, and the men rushed to the sheets and halyards, guns and
+ammunition-lockers.
+
+Now was Kidd's opportunity to dash in, seize a valuable prize, and get
+off with her; but he hung off and on, perplexed between timidity and
+cupidity, until by the time he had made up his mind to put his fortune
+to the touch his prey became alarmed and began to scatter. He then bore
+down on the nearest; but by this time he had been sighted by the two
+men-of-war of the convoy, and the sight of their black hulls speeding
+towards him, straight and steady and business-like through the flying
+merchantmen, was enough for Kidd. He fired a feeble shot or two, squared
+his yards, and made off before the wind for dear life, while the crew
+silently handled their tackle, and indulged in I know not what
+contemptuous thoughts of their commander.
+
+But by the act of firing upon a friendly flag Kidd had determined his
+status; there was nothing for him now but to go on with his pirating.
+Soon he had an opportunity to show that desperate courage of which, by
+his own account, he was possessed. Off the coast of Malabar he met a
+small Moorish coasting-vessel. Having discovered that she was
+short-handed and unarmed, he became terrible indeed. He seized her and
+forced her Captain and quartermaster to take on with him as pilot and
+interpreter, the Captain being an Englishman, and the other, Don
+Antonio, a Portuguese. The men he used cruelly, hoisting them up by the
+arms, drubbing them with a bare cutlass, and putting them to other
+tortures to force them to disclose the whereabouts of their treasure;
+but all he got from them was a parcel of coffee and a bale of pepper.
+
+He then touched at Malabar, but finding himself an object of suspicion
+he quickly went away.
+
+The coast was alarmed by this time, however, and a Portuguese man-of-war
+was sent out after him. Kidd fought her for a while in a half-hearted
+way, but, though she was his inferior in men and metal, he soon had
+enough of honest combat, and got off by his superior speed.
+
+He next ran down to Porca, where he took on board a number of hogs and
+other livestock for provisions, and paid for them in good British
+silver. He also watered his ship and otherwise provided for his ship's
+company.
+
+He then stood to sea again, and came up with a Moorish craft, the master
+of which, a Dutchman named Schipper Mitchell, hoisted French colors, as
+Kidd chased under that flag. The pirates hailed in French, and were
+answered in the same tongue by a Frenchman who was one of Mitchell's
+passengers. Kidd then ordered the Dutchman to send a boat on board, and
+when it arrived at his gangway he asked the Frenchman if he had a pass
+for himself. The passenger replied that he had, whereupon Kidd told him
+to pass for the Captain, "For, by Heaven, you are the Captain, and if
+you say you're not I'll hang you!"
+
+The Frenchman of course dared not refuse to do as he was ordered.
+
+The object of the manoeuvre is apparent. Kidd had not the pluck to go
+on openly with his high-sea robbery, but fancied that if he seized the
+ship as a prize, pretending that she belonged to French subjects, he
+would get into no trouble on account of her. He did not seem to take
+into account the fact that his previous conduct had already stamped him
+as a criminal, but appeared to think that as long as he did not openly
+hoist the black flag he might do as he liked with impunity. Indeed, his
+whole career as a sea-robber consisted of similar acts of fatuous and
+ostrich-like stupidity.
+
+He landed on one of the Malabar islands for wood and water, and as his
+cooper was murdered by the natives he plundered and burned their
+village. He took one of the islanders and had him tied to a tree and
+shot, after which he again put to sea in quest of prizes. After being at
+sea less than a week he fell in with and captured the greatest prize
+that ever fell into his hands, the Moorish bark _Quedah Merchant_, of
+four hundred tons. From this vessel he got a cargo which he sold for
+more than ten thousand pounds.
+
+[Illustration: HE PLUNDERED AND BURNED]
+
+The Indians came on board of him and trafficked, and he performed his
+bargains punctually for a time, until he was ready to sail; and then he
+took their goods and set them on shore with no payment, which was quite
+in accord with his despicable character. The Indians had been accustomed
+to deal with pirates, and had found them, as a rule, men of honor in the
+way of trade, so it was easy for Kidd to impose upon them.
+
+The pirate put some men aboard of the _Quedah Merchant_, and in her
+company sailed for Madagascar. He had no sooner arrived there than off
+came a canoe in which were several old acquaintances of his who had long
+been "upon the account," as they called buccaneering. They belonged to a
+ship called the _Resolution_, which was commanded by one Culliford, a
+notorious sea-robber. When they met Kidd they told him that they were
+informed he had come to hang them, which they would take very unkind in
+such an old friend. Kidd dissipated their fears by telling them that he
+was in every respect their brother, and as bad as they, and in token of
+amity drank their health in a bowl of grog.
+
+Kidd then went aboard, Culliford promising his friendship and
+assistance; and Culliford in turn boarded Kidd, and the two worthies
+made a merry night of it in the cabin of the _Adventure_, spinning
+their yarns of the deep seas and laughing at their enemies; and as
+Culliford was in need of some necessaries, Kidd fitted him out from his
+spare tackle.
+
+The _Adventure_ was now so leaky that Kidd transferred her guns and
+stores to the _Quedah Merchant_ and got to sea again, but not before
+more than half of his disgusted crew had left him.
+
+He touched at Amboyan, and there learned that the news of his conduct
+had reached England and that he was outlawed. Indeed, the reports of his
+misdeeds were so exaggerated that the English merchants became greatly
+alarmed, and had Kidd, with one Captain Avery, excepted in a general
+pardon of freebooters which had just been promulgated. Kidd knew nothing
+of this, but relying on some French passes which he had found on one or
+two of his prizes, and deeming his brazen assurance enough to carry him
+through any peril from the law, he made for New York. Here, by the
+orders of Lord Bellamont, he was promptly seized, with all of his
+effects, and was sent to England to be tried.
+
+Here his conduct was such as to destroy the last shreds of respect that
+one might have had for his character. Instead of meeting his fate like a
+man, he begged and implored and whined and promised, but all to no
+avail.
+
+He insisted much upon his own innocence and the villainy of his men. He
+went out upon a laudable employment, he said, and had no occasion to go
+pirating, but the men mutinied against him and did as they pleased. As
+to the friendship shown to that notorious villain Culliford, Kidd denied
+it, and said that he would have taken him, but his own men, being a
+parcel of rogues, refused to stand by him, and several of them even ran
+from his ship to join the wicked pirate.
+
+But the evidence was too strong against him, and he was condemned.
+
+When asked what he had to say why sentence should not be pronounced upon
+him, he replied that he had nothing to say except that he had been sworn
+against by wicked people; and when sentence was pronounced he said: "My
+lord, it is a very hard sentence. For my part, I am the most innocent
+person of them all, only I have been sworn against by perjured persons."
+
+And so, in 1701, whining and protesting miserably, he was led away to
+the scaffold, and there paid the penalty of his crimes.
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+HOWARD THE BUCCANEER
+
+A Captain of Many Ships
+
+
+In the days when high-sterned galleons sailed the Spanish Main, keelless
+and lofty, and helpless in the wind's eye; when all the sailors wore
+their tarry queues and ear-rings; when "Down along the coast of the high
+Barbaree" there was no law but that of the Moorish buccaneer, a young
+man in the peaceful British hamlet of Barwich reached the age of
+twenty-one.
+
+Thomas Howard was a youth of promise and capacity. He was handsome,
+burly, popular, and generous, and always ready for any adventure. His
+father, a gentleman of rank and estate, was dead, but his doting mother
+lavished upon him an affection as blind as it was deep, supplied him
+with an excess of pocket-money, and left no wish of his ungratified. The
+result is readily imagined. His old amiability deserted him, and he sank
+into a savage discontent that found expression in numerous acts of
+roguery and violence.
+
+As he grew worse and worse, an old friend of his father's persuaded him
+to seek employment upon the seas, and purchased him a berth as
+midshipman on a trading-craft bound from Liverpool to the West Indies.
+
+A few months of sea discipline shattered young Howard's patience, and
+upon his arrival at Jamaica he promptly deserted his ship.
+
+He had still a few pounds left of his fortune, and with these he
+purchased admittance to the society of a gang of ruffians who frequented
+the beaches. One night, with some of these, he stole a canoe and went to
+the Grand Camanas to join a party of others of their ilk who lurked
+thereabouts with the design of going "on the account."
+
+They soon fell in with those whom they sought, and, as the party now
+numbered twenty, they deemed themselves strong enough to set to their
+work, and accordingly began their preparations. At a council held the
+night when this decision was reached, the question of the election of
+officers came up; the men seemed about evenly divided in their choice of
+a captain between Howard and a tall islander named James. The latter was
+finally elected by a vote of ten to eight, while Howard was chosen
+quartermaster.
+
+Their first need was a boat; in the offing at anchor lay a turtle-sloop
+with two small swivels mounted fore and aft. She was the very craft for
+their purpose, but how were they to get her?
+
+Close inshore on the other side of an estuary a mile wide Howard
+remembered seeing a large canoe moored in the light of a patrol's
+camp-fire. He and two others swam over to her, cut her line with their
+sheath-knives, and brought her away without discovery.
+
+The robbers then boarded her, and, with two men forward and two aft
+handling the paddles, the rest concealed behind the high bulwarks,
+stole out silently towards the turtle-vessel. The nature of their craft
+was not perceived until they were alongside their victim, when, with a
+yell, they burst from their concealment and made their capture without
+losing a man. They then started out for booty, but for a long time their
+only prizes were turtlers, which supplied them with men without
+increasing their wealth. After about two weeks they met an Irish
+brigantine with provisions and servants for the Governor of Jamaica.
+They laid her aboard, captured her without resistance, forced her men,
+and made off with her, leaving her master the old turtle-sloop and five
+men to bring him to port. Not long after this they surprised a sloop of
+six guns, and finding her larger, faster, and sounder than the
+brigantine, they shifted to her with their belongings. This was the
+third time within two months that they had changed their vessel, but
+still the game of "Progressive Piracy" went on. Off the coast of
+Virginia they fell in with a large New England brigantine laden with
+provisions and bound for Barbadoes. They made a prize of her, and
+shifting their own guns aboard of her, found themselves in a fine vessel
+of ten guns well equipped for a long voyage.
+
+While on the coast of Virginia in this ship they took several English
+vessels, from which they got men, arms, provisions, clothes, and other
+necessaries. As most of these ships had on board felons for the Virginia
+colonies, they took from them a number of volunteers besides their
+forced men, and they soon acquired so large a complement that they had
+no hesitation in ranging up to and boarding a Virginia galley of
+superior size and twenty-four guns. They got a number of convict
+volunteers from her, transferred their stores to her, and set out to
+sweep the seas in earnest. They steered for the Guinea coast, that Mecca
+of pirates, and made many captures, which not only enriched them but
+increased their complement. After they had been for some months on this
+ground they spied a large Portuguese ship from Brazil, whose thirty-six
+guns did not frighten them from the attack.
+
+As they hoisted the black flag the Brazilian Captain became overpowered
+with fear, commanded the quartermaster to strike, and sought safety for
+himself in the hold. His mate, however, a New-Englander, refused to
+surrender, and kept off the pirates for the better part of the
+afternoon. His resistance was strong and well sustained, but the
+Portuguese finally fled from the deck, leaving him with only thirty
+men--English, French, and Dutch--and he was obliged to ask for quarter.
+The pirates then went down the coast in their newly acquired ship and
+made several prizes, some of which they burned and some of which they
+sank. As they now mustered nearly two hundred men, the only ones that
+they forced from captured crews were carpenters, calkers, and surgeons,
+whose services they needed greatly.
+
+Off the Cape of Good Hope they took two Spanish brigantines, in whose
+company they proceeded, until they ran the _Alexander_ ashore on a small
+island north of Madagascar, where she stuck fast.
+
+The Captain being sick in bed, the men went ashore on the island and
+carried off provisions and water to lighten the ship, on board of which
+none but the Captain, the quartermaster (Howard), and all others were
+left.
+
+This was too good a chance for the exercise of Howard's love of
+treachery. He brought the faster of the two brigantines alongside,
+tumbled all the treasure into her, scuttled the other, and made off with
+twenty men and two hundred thousand pounds, leaving the rest of his
+shipmates to shake their impotent fists and roar maledictions after his
+diminishing sail.
+
+After rounding the Cape, Howard and his fellows went into a fine harbor
+on the east side of Madagascar hardly known to European vessels. Here
+they buried most of the treasure, and for a short time enjoyed the
+luxury of shore life. Wood and water were abundant, game plentiful, and
+the waters swarmed with edible fish.
+
+It was pleasant to the pirate, after his long trick afloat, to lie on
+the yellow sands under the shade of palm and mango and tamarind trees
+and see the slow surf breaking gently on the beach. In his nostrils was
+the odor of orange and spice; golden sunbirds and crimson cockatoos
+nested above him, gaudy butterflies floated about him, and in the
+shallow waters of the still lagoons were long-legged curlew, busy
+kingfishers, and wild duck with tenderly shaded plumes. Behind him the
+tropical jungles blazed gloriously with trees of blooming scarlet and
+flaring yellow, about which twined gorgeous creepers of dark purple, and
+from whose leafy depths came the chattering of monkeys and the
+twittering of innumerable birds. Far off he could hear the smothered
+thunder of lofty falls, near at hand the plashing of rivulets, and
+seaward the deep voice of the Indian Ocean. The Malagasy women brought
+him cooling fruits from the mountains, the hunters came back laden with
+the flesh of wild cattle and pigs and great, feathery bunches of
+waterfowl, and the native king sent down to him rice and bananas, maize
+and manioc, from the rich store of his harvest.
+
+After but a month of this happy shore life they set sail, and running
+down the coast of Africa met the English ship _Prosperous_, which they
+captured by a night attack. The _Prosperous_ was a large, well-found
+ship of sixteen guns, and well suited to Howard's purpose, so he
+transferred his crew and stores to her and sailed to Maritan. They found
+there a number of shipwrecked pirates, who, with some of the
+_Prosperous's_ crew, took on with them, and increased their complement
+to seventy men.
+
+They next steered for St. Mary's, where they wooded, watered, and
+shipped more hands. Here they had an invitation from one Ort van Tyle, a
+sturdy Dutch trader of social ambition, to attend the christening of two
+of his children. He received them with hospitality and civility, but
+they had no sooner entered his house than they began to plunder it, and
+Van Tyle protesting, they took him prisoner, and designed to hang him,
+but one of the pirates aided him to escape and he took to the woods.
+Here he met some of his black; he armed them, and formed an ambush on a
+scrubby island where the river channel was narrow. The pirates came
+down in their canoe and Howard's pinnace, laughing and shouting,
+bringing with them the booty of the looted house and some captives, whom
+they set at the paddles. The canoe was overturned in the rapids just as
+they came abreast of the ambush, and the captives swam ashore and
+escaped, while the pirates clung to the sides of Howard's boat. As they
+drifted by, Van Tyle let drive at them, and in a shower of musket-balls,
+arrows, and assagais the helpless pirates were swept back to their
+ships, dismally howling with rage and mortification. In this affair two
+of Howard's men were killed, while he was shot through the arm, and two
+others were seriously wounded.
+
+[Illustration: THE HELPLESS PIRATES WERE SWEPT BACK]
+
+He then sailed to Mathelage, where he designed to victual for a
+West-Indian cruise, but he found there a large Dutch merchantman of
+forty guns, whose captain curtly told Howard to get out or he'd fall
+foul of him. Howard's recent experience with Dutchmen had been
+unpleasant, so, as his vessel was not strong enough to cope with the
+Amsterdamer, he made sail for Mayotta, and passed down the bay amid a
+volley of gibes, jeers, and ingenious Dutch profanity. On his way to
+Mayotta he fell in with Captain Bowen, of the pirate ship _Speedy
+Return_, of thirty guns, and communicated to him the contumely to which
+a "Gentleman of the Seas" had been subjected. Bowen promised to avenge
+the insult to their honorable craft, and accordingly anchored in the
+dusk of the next evening within hail of the irascible burgher. The
+_Speedy Return_ was a small ship for her armament and crew, and this,
+with her suspicious appearance, determined the Dutchman once more to
+exhibit the bold front that he could assume when there seemed to be no
+danger in it. Accordingly he went to the rail and bawled over the quiet
+waters, "Vot sheep is dot, and vy for you don'd git oud to onced?"
+
+"This is his Majesty's cruiser _Haystack_," came the unruffled response,
+in Bowen's clear voice. "She has three decks and no bottom, and sails
+four miles to leeward and one ahead. Want to race?"
+
+"Vot sheep is dot, and none of your tomfoolishness?" roared the Teuton,
+purple with rage.
+
+"This is the _Flying Dutchman_, Captain Vanderdecken, and the crew's all
+ghosts," replied the pirate, in high glee. "Come aboard and cheer up our
+spirits."
+
+This was too much. The Dutchman mounted the rail and shrieked, hoarsely,
+"I now asks you der last time for, vot sheep you is, vere you vrom, and
+vot you to do goin' about to be?"
+
+"This is the ship _Speedy Return_," sang out Bowen, "_from the seas_,
+and I'm goin' to fire a salute."
+
+The pirate then gave the word, and his ship roared out a broadside that
+shivered the Dutchman's rail, smashed his boats, and carried away his
+spanker-boom. The merchantman waited no longer, but slipped his cable
+and made off to sea, leaving the greater part of his cargo ashore, where
+it was promptly gathered in by the thrifty buccaneers.
+
+Bowen now made sail for Mayotta, where he joined the _Prosperous_, and
+the two ships sailed together for the East Indies. After some successes
+there they returned by separate routes to Madagascar, for the purpose of
+revictualling and refitting, agreeing to meet again at St. John's and
+lie in wait for the Moorish fleet. They did this, and one of the Moors
+fell a prize to Bowen, but Howard did not come up with them till they
+were anchored at the bay of Surat, where they waited to lighten.
+
+Howard came up among them slowly, under shortened sail, and as he
+concealed his men and kept his ports closed, they took him for an
+English East-Indiaman and suffered him to approach. Howard suddenly
+attacked the largest vessel, and after a desperate fight, in which he
+lost thirty men, carried her by boarding.
+
+On this vessel was a nobleman belonging to the court of the Great Mogul.
+The prize itself was immensely valuable, and the nobleman's ransom
+amounted to twenty thousand pounds, so by this time Howard's fortune was
+well assured. He then ran down to Malabar, where he met Bowen and his
+prize, a fine, stout ship of sixty guns. The two captains with their
+quartermasters held a consultation (on the night of their meeting) in
+the cabin of the _Speedy Return_, and their future plans were decided
+upon over a rich banquet provided from the stores of the prizes.
+
+The _Prosperous_ they sank and the _Speedy Return_ they burned, and in
+Bowen's prize they continued their depredations, the two crews being
+joined together. This made Howard's ninth change of vessels since he had
+taken to piracy.
+
+As they cruised down the coast of Madagascar they came in sight of
+Howard's old haven, where he had buried his treasure. He became seized
+with a desire for shore life, and with those of his men who had lived
+there before with him, and with their share of the recent booty, he went
+back to his old stamping-ground to settle down. He was received with
+open arms by his old friends among the natives; he married a Malagasy
+woman, and for a long time lived quietly and peaceably, shooting,
+fishing, watching his herds, and cultivating his fields.
+
+A missionary who was shipwrecked on the coast about a year after
+Howard's return worked on the pirate's soft heart so successfully that
+before being taken home on a trading-vessel that put in for water he had
+brought the gallant buccaneer into the close folds of the Roman Catholic
+Church and to a full realization of his unusually sinful state. After
+the missionary's departure Howard missed the theological discourse and
+dispute that had whiled away many a tropic twilight, and he knew not
+where to turn for an outlet of his intellectual activities. Finally the
+bright idea struck him that it would be both pleasing and beneficial to
+evangelize the natives. In a fit of religious enthusiasm he proceeded to
+this work with his usual prodigal hand. Unfortunately for himself, he
+used a club in the process, and this, coupled with his brutal treatment
+of his wife, made him unpopular among the Malagasy.
+
+One night the docile aborigines fell upon him while he was asleep in his
+hammock, and left mementos of their presence in the shape of
+thirty-seven assagais stuck decoratively in various parts of his body.
+When found he was very dead, and thus terminated the earthly career of a
+treacherous and unworthy ruffian, whose only claims to our consideration
+were his good seamanship and Anglo-Saxon pluck.
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+TEW, OF RHODE ISLAND
+
+A Fighter from the Seas
+
+
+On a lovely morning in the early part of the eighteenth century two
+vessels might have been seen approaching each other at that point where
+the northern waters of the Mozambique Channel mingle with those of the
+Indian Ocean. The day was mild and the wind light and variable. The
+ships rolled lazily on the languid swell, and a couple of leagues to the
+south and east of them the low, green shores of Madagascar were dimly
+visible.
+
+As the vessels drew near to each other the smaller of the two, a large
+brig-sloop with raking masts and a narrow, speedy-looking hull, put down
+her helm, rounded into the wind, and ran the black flag up to her main
+peak. The other, a trim and sturdy ship-rigged craft, with something of
+a man-of-war look about her lofty spars and graceful lines, seemed
+little perturbed by this significant display of the pirate emblem. She
+hove to, however, and the two vessels lay rolling idly on the blue water
+a long musket-shot apart.
+
+Before the sloop had time for any further demonstration one of the
+ship's quarter-boats was lowered and brought to the starboard gangway,
+and into her stepped a spare, dark, wiry-looking man of medium height,
+evidently the Captain. The boat shoved off and made for the sloop, the
+Captain steering, and the crew pulling with the long, regular stroke of
+man-of-war's men.
+
+So far the ship had displayed no colors, and the peculiar nonchalance
+with which her crew had behaved towards the pirates excited the latter's
+marked apprehension. Could she be a public ship in disguise? If so, then
+farewell to the buccaneer's hopes of brave booty in the Indian seas, for
+the wind had fallen and the vessels were drifting nearer together.
+
+The dark man seized the life-lines as they were extended to him from the
+pirates' gangway, and climbed up the ladder with catlike agility.
+
+"What ship is this?" he asked, curtly, ignoring the crew that pressed
+ominously about him, and addressing himself to a tall man of a quiet but
+commanding appearance who stepped forward to meet him.
+
+"This is the sloop _Hope_, sir, and I am her commander, Thomas Tew, at
+your service."
+
+"And I am Captain Misson of the ship _Victoire_, lately of his French
+Majesty's service, but now from the seas."
+
+The expression "from the seas" at once allayed the fears of Tew's
+pirates, for the buccaneers of that day thus characterized themselves in
+their answering hails.
+
+The crew went about their duty, and the two captains entered the cabin,
+where they began a friendly conversation, and informed each other of
+their respective histories.
+
+It seemed that Mr. Richier, the Governor of Bermuda, had fitted out two
+sloops on the privateer account, one commanded by Captain George Drew,
+and the other by Thomas Tew. They were instructed to make their way to
+the river Gambia, in Africa, and to attempt the taking of the French
+factory of Goree on that coast. The vessels sailed together and kept
+company for some time, but, a violent storm coming up, Drew sprung his
+mast and they lost each other.
+
+Tew, separated from his consort, thought of providing for his future
+with one bold stroke. Accordingly he summoned his crew to the mast, and
+addressed them upon the subject of his plans.
+
+He told them that they were afloat in a fine craft bent upon a dangerous
+mission, with no prospect of advantage for themselves, but only for
+their employers. That he was little inclined to risk his health and his
+life except for some great personal gain, and finally he proposed
+bluntly that they should throw off their allegiance to Governor Richier,
+and go "on the account," as piracy was called in those days.
+
+The crew listened eagerly, and at the conclusion of his speech sung out
+as one man:
+
+"A gold chain or a wooden leg. We'll stand by you, Captain."
+
+Tew then made sail for and doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and as he
+entered the Red Sea on his cruise northward came up with a ship bound
+from the Indies to Arabia. She was richly laden, and carried three
+hundred soldiers to aid the crew in defending her cargo; but,
+notwithstanding her superior force, the pirates carried her with a dash,
+and shared fifteen thousand dollars a man in plunder. They then stood
+down the coast towards Madagascar, and the _Victoire_ was the first ship
+they had sighted since leaving their prize.
+
+Misson listened with interest to Captain Tew's story, and then gave him
+a brief account of his own adventures. He said that, having gone to sea
+as a sub-officer on the ship _Victoire_ of the French royal service, he
+had participated in an engagement with an English man-of-war; that all
+his superior officers had been killed in the action, and that he had
+assumed command and sunk the Briton; and that after this his crew had
+requested him to retain command and go "on the account" for himself. He
+confessed that he had willingly acted upon their suggestion, had made
+several prizes, and established a colony on a bay to the northward of
+Diego Suariez, on the island of Madagascar. He informed Tew further that
+he was much impressed with the courage with which the _Hope_ had borne
+down to engage a vessel so much her superior in size and strength as the
+_Victoire_, and that, as he could not have too many resolute fellows as
+his allies, he would be glad to join forces with Tew's men.
+
+Tew answered that before entering into an alliance with Misson he would
+prefer to examine the workings of the latter's colony. Misson agreed to
+this, and the _Victoire_ and the _Hope_ sailed in company for
+Libertaita, as Misson called his new republic.
+
+Just at sunrise the two ships passed between the fortified headlands
+that guarded the entrance to the pirate stronghold, and Tew, standing on
+his quarter-deck and following the motions of the _Victoire_, was
+astonished at the strength of the harbor he entered, and the discipline
+that seemed to prevail there.
+
+With the timbers and guns of captured ships Misson had constructed and
+armed two powerful forts which stood on the headlands at the entrance to
+the harbor. On a little island, where the channel branched, a brown
+earthwork pointed ten heavy cannon so as to rake the seaward approaches,
+and far back of it, on the edge of the bay, the walls and roofs of a
+fortified town reared themselves orderly amid the green of the tropical
+foliage. Everywhere was the appearance of industry and discipline. On a
+beach near the town a group of sailors was engaged careening a small
+brig to scrape the sea-growths from her sides, another party was filling
+water-casks at a well-constructed reservoir, and the rattling of echoes
+of carpenters' hammers came from a couple of storehouses in process of
+construction near the water's edge. From a citadel in the centre of the
+town and from flag-staffs erected on both forts and the water-battery
+the flag of Libertaita fluttered in the breeze, vigilant sentries walked
+the ramparts with military tread, and as the _Victoire_ and the _Hope_
+let go their anchors in the gentle ground-swell of the harbor, a battery
+of eighteen-pounders roared out a welcome of nine guns.
+
+Tew was charmed with the appearance of the place, and upon going ashore
+with Misson had his favorable impressions strengthened and confirmed.
+The captains were received with great respect by Caraccioli, Misson's
+lieutenant, who admired not a little the courage that Tew had displayed
+in capturing his prize and in giving chase to Misson.
+
+The colony at this time was peopled by over one thousand men, many of
+them having been captured by Misson in his prizes. Of these three
+hundred had taken on with him, one hundred were natives of the island of
+Mohilla, with whose queen Misson had formed a matrimonial and political
+alliance, and the remainder were prisoners whom Misson intended to send
+to their homes, and whom he employed in the mean time as laborers
+around his fortifications.
+
+The day after the arrival of the captains at Libertaita a formal council
+was held. Tew promptly expressed his willingness to join forces with
+Misson, and was made second in command.
+
+The question of the disposition of Misson's numerous prisoners was
+brought up at once. It was decided to tell them that Misson had formed
+an alliance with a prince of the natives, and to propose to them that
+they should either assist the new colony or be sent up the country as
+prisoners. On this decision being imparted to them, seventy-three of the
+prisoners took on, and the remainder desired that they be given any
+other fate than that of being sent up into the wild and savage interior;
+so one hundred and seventeen of them were set to work upon a dock near
+the mouth of the harbor, and the other prisoners, lest they should
+revolt, were forbidden, under pain of death, to pass certain prescribed
+bounds. The _Hope_ lay in the harbor as a guard-ship, and the Johanna
+men were armed and put on patrol duty; but while the pirates were
+providing for their protection they did not forget their support, and
+large quantities of Indian and European corn and other grain were sowed
+in the fertile fields of Libertaita.
+
+Soon after this it was decided to send away the prisoners, as they were
+too much of a burden for the infant colony. They were accordingly
+summoned before the captains and told that they were to be set at
+liberty. Misson informed them that he knew the consequence of giving
+them freedom; that he expected to be attacked as soon as the place of
+his retreat was known, and had it in his hands to avoid further trouble
+by putting them all to death; but that Captain Tew had agreed with him
+to practise humanity, and that they were to have their property restored
+to them, and were to sail for a friendly coast the next morning in a
+ship that was well provisioned but unarmed. All he asked was that they
+should never serve against him. An oath to this effect was cheerfully
+taken, and away the prisoners sailed to the nearest European
+settlement.
+
+When they had gone Misson returned to the work of improving his town,
+and gave the command of his ship, the _Victoire_, to Tew, who, with one
+hundred and sixty picked fellows, set out to sweep the seas. He sailed
+down the wind to the coast of Zanzibar, and off Quiloa made up to a
+large ship which backed her main-topsail and laid by for him. Tew
+engaged her for four hours, losing many men, but finding her a
+Portuguese public ship of fifty guns and three hundred men, much more
+than a match for the little _Victoire_, he attempted to make off. The
+_Victoire_, however, was so foul from her long service that she could
+not show her customary clean pair of heels, and the stranger, proving
+fast and weatherly, drew up with her. The Portuguese Captain, a gallant
+officer of great height and herculean strength, lay alongside the
+_Victoire_ and boarded her at the head of his men; but the pirates, not
+used to being attacked, and expecting no quarter, made so desperate a
+resistance that they not only drove back the enemy with loss, but were
+enabled to board in their turn. At first only a few followed the
+Portuguese as they leaped back into their own ship; but Tew, perceiving
+the desperate resolution of these, sang out, "Follow me, lads!" and
+sprang over his enemy's rail. The Portuguese opposed the pirates firmly
+for a time, but to Tew's cry, "She's our own! Board her! Board her!" his
+men replied in continually augmenting numbers, and drove the defenders
+back to the main-hatch. Here a bloody conflict ensued, for the
+Portuguese Captain fought in the front rank of his men, and with voice
+and example encouraged them to combat. Seeing this, Tew rushed forward
+to meet him, and the two captains crossed swords with equal bravery. The
+crews paused to observe the duel, and watched with fiercely excited eyes
+the flashing sabres and shifting poises of their champions. The
+Portuguese had a longer reach, and was much taller and stronger than the
+pirate, but the latter had the agility of a panther, and was noted as
+one of the best swordsmen of his day. Time and again the Portuguese
+made a dash against his adversary with point or blade, only to be met
+with an accurate parry or a quick return stroke that forced him backward
+nearer and nearer to the open hatch. Finally Tew parried a furious lunge
+and delivered his terrible return stroke on the neck of the Portuguese,
+who threw up his hands and fell backward down the hatch. This ended the
+fight, and the crew of the public ship called for quarter.
+
+With his rich prize, which yielded him one hundred thousand pounds in
+Spanish gold, Tew put back to port, where, notwithstanding his severe
+loss, his courage and dash were loudly acclaimed by the colony.
+Caraccioli persuaded two hundred and ten of the Portuguese to join the
+Libertaitans, and among them, to Misson's great pleasure, was found a
+school-master, whose services he at once devoted to the instruction of
+his negroes.
+
+Two sloops of eighty tons each had been built in a creek, and when they
+were finished they were armed with eight guns apiece out of a Dutch
+prize, and sent on a trial trip. They proved to be fast, weatherly
+vessels, and on their return from their first trip to sea Misson
+proposed to send them out on a voyage of survey to lay down a chart of
+the shoals and deep water around the coast of Madagascar. As Tew was an
+excellent navigator he was given command of the expedition and of one of
+the sloops, while the school-master, who proved to be a good seaman and
+skilful surveyor, commanded the other. The sloops were manned with a
+crew of fifty blacks and fifty whites each, and their four months'
+voyage enabled the negroes not only to learn how to handle the
+boarding-pike, but, as they were anxious to learn and be useful, to pick
+up a fair knowledge of French and seamanship. They returned with an
+excellent chart and three prizes. Misson now determined to make a foray
+in force, and, dividing five hundred men, white and black, between the
+_Victoire_ and the _Hope_, he and Tew set out for the high seas; of
+course a strong force was left behind as a garrison.
+
+Off the coast of Arabia Felix they fell in with a ship of one hundred
+and ten guns belonging to the Great Mogul. This ship carried a crew of
+seven hundred men and nine hundred passengers, and towered monstrously
+above the low sides of the pirate vessels; but Tew on the starboard
+quarter and Misson on the port bore up gallantly, and engaged her. To
+the opening broadsides of the pirates she thundered an awful response.
+Soon the wind died out, and thick clouds of smoke lay motionless on the
+water; under its cover Tew brought the little _Hope_ alongside, and,
+with his cutlass between his teeth and his pistol in his hand, clambered
+up the lofty side. He had barely reached the rail when he was severely
+wounded and knocked overboard by a pike-thrust. However, he soon came to
+the surface, and managed, at the head of a few of his men, to enter one
+of his enemy's lower-deck ports. In the mean time Misson had boarded the
+Mussulman on the port quarter, and a hand-to-hand fight was going on
+over the rail. Misson was hard pressed by numbers when Tew appeared from
+the fore-hatch. One glance at this murderous-looking figure, with bloody
+and smoke-grimed garments, rushing at them sword in hand from behind,
+was enough for the Mussulmans, and with a wild shriek of "Allah!" they
+broke and fled down the hatches, leaving the pirates in possession.
+
+[Illustration: HE WAS KNOCKED OVERBOARD BY A PIKE-THRUST]
+
+This proved a most valuable capture, as over one million pounds, besides
+many rich silks, spices, valuable carpets, and diamonds were stored in
+the prize's hold and strong-boxes.
+
+The prisoners were landed at a point between Ain and Aden, and the
+captured ship brought back to Libertaita, where, as she had proved a
+slow and unwieldly craft, she was taken to pieces. Her cordage and
+knee-timbers were preserved with all the bolts, eyes, chains, and other
+iron-work, and her guns were used in two strong water-batteries as an
+additional support to the forts on the headlands.
+
+The colony was now in prime condition; a number of acres had been
+enclosed, and afforded pasturage for three hundred head of cattle--a
+purchase from the natives, who had begun to manifest a most friendly
+spirit--the grain was ripening finely, the storehouses and magazines
+were well under way, and the dock was finished.
+
+As the _Victoire_ was foul from long service and very loose from recent
+storms, she was docked and practically rebuilt. When she was floated
+again she was provisioned for a long cruise, and was about to set out
+for the Guinea coast when one of the sloops came in, schooner-rigged,
+with the news that she had been driven to port by five lofty ships,
+Portuguese, of fifty guns each and full of men.
+
+The alarm was given, the forts and batteries manned, and the men put
+under arms. Tew was given command of the English and Portuguese, while
+Misson directed the French and one hundred disciplined negroes. Slowly
+and majestically the fleet swept on towards the pirate stronghold; as
+they came within easy gun-shot Tew leaped to the side of his
+water-battery, and with both arms outstretched stood waving in one hand
+the black flag, and in the other the banner of Libertaita, with its
+white albatross on a blue field. A storm of solid shot greeted the
+daring figure, but he leaped down unharmed, as battery after battery
+and fort after fort opened with a steady roar against the invader. The
+Portuguese dashed by the forts triumphantly, but wavered as they came
+under the fire at close range of the heavy guns of the water-batteries.
+They had thought to carry all before them with one bold dash, and after
+passing the headlands had deemed victory assured, but here they were in
+a hornets' nest. Under the dreadful fire from Tew's and Misson's skilful
+gunners two of the Portuguese vessels were speedily sunk. The others
+turned to flee; but they were not to get off so easily. No sooner were
+they clear of the forts than the pirates manned both ships and sloops,
+gave them chase, and engaged them in the open sea. The Portuguese
+defended themselves gallantly, and one of them, which was attacked by
+the two sloops, beat off the Libertaitans twice; two made a running
+fight and got off, and the third was left to shift as she could. This
+last, a fifty-gun ship of three hundred and twenty men, defended herself
+till the greater number of her crew were killed. Finally, finding that
+she was left to an unequal fight, she asked for quarter, and good
+quarter was given. Thus ended Admiral X's "holiday jaunt to wipe out a
+nest of pirates," as the Portuguese Commander-in-Chief had described his
+expedition in advance.
+
+None of the prisoners were plundered, but, on the contrary, the pirate
+captains invited to their table the officers of the captured ship, and
+congratulated them upon their courage and ability.
+
+For some months after this nothing occurred to interrupt the quiet of
+the colony. Finally, wearying of inactivity, Tew took the _Victoire_ and
+three hundred men and sailed in search of prizes. Sixty miles from
+Libertaita he found a strange colony of buccaneers. The ship hove to and
+the Captain went ashore alone to make the acquaintance of the strangers.
+While he was absent from the ship a great gale rose and blew the
+_Victoire_ ashore on a dangerous reef; she went down before his eyes,
+carrying with her every man of the crew.
+
+This was not the end of misfortune, for a few nights afterwards the two
+Libertaitan sloops appeared, and from one of them Misson came ashore
+with disastrous news. The same night that the _Victoire_ went down the
+natives had risen and destroyed Libertaita; Misson had saved a quantity
+of diamonds and bar gold, and fled in the sloops with the remnant of his
+band; they were now without a ship and without a haven.
+
+The plunder and the men were equally divided between the sloops, and the
+two captains sailed in company for the coast of America. Misson's vessel
+went down with all hands in a gale off Cape Infantes, but Tew made a
+peaceful voyage to the British colonies. He settled in Rhode Island,
+dispersed his crew, and lived for a time unquestioned with his wealth.
+He might have reached an honored old age, with nothing to recall the
+memories of his past, but at the end of a few years he was persuaded to
+go once more "on the account." In the Red Sea he engaged a ship of the
+Great Mogul, vastly his superior in size and armament. During the
+action Tew received a mortal wound, but fought on as long as he could
+stand. When he fell his men became terrified, and suffered themselves to
+be taken without resistance. They were all hanged; and so ended the last
+of the Libertaitans.
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+THE VROUW VAN TWINKLE'S KRULLERS
+
+A Story of Old New York
+
+
+Clean, snug, and picturesque as a Holland town was our city of New York
+for some years after it had dropped its juvenile name of New Amsterdam
+and adopted its present name; but not so suddenly could it change its
+nature and Dutch ways. Dutch neatness and the Dutch tongue still reigned
+supreme. Substantial wooden houses turned gable ends of black and yellow
+Holland bricks to the front, until Pearl Street appeared like a
+triumphal procession of chess-boards; while no mansion in that then
+fashionable quarter could boast more big doors and small windows than
+that of the worthy burgher Van Twinkle, and the little weathercock on
+the roof was as giddy as any of its neighbors, and as undecided as to
+which way the wind actually did blow.
+
+An air of festivity pervaded this residence on a certain winter's day in
+the early part of the eighteenth century; windows were thrown open, and
+Gretel, the eldest daughter of the family, followed by black Sophy,
+armed with brooms, mops, and pails, entered that _sanctum sanctorum_,
+the best parlor, to scrub and scour with unwonted energy; for to-morrow
+would be that greatest of Knickerbocker holidays, _Nieuw Jaar_, or New
+Year, when every good Hollander would consider it his duty to call upon
+his friends and neighbors, and the front door with its great brass
+knocker would swing from morning till night to admit the well-wishers of
+the season.
+
+In the big kitchen also active preparations were going forward. A royal
+fire blazed in the wide chimney, and the Vrouw Van Twinkle, in short
+gown and petticoat, was cutting out and boiling those lightest and
+richest of krullers for which she was famous among the good housewives
+of the town: real Dutch krullers, brown as nuts, and crisp as pie-crust.
+
+"Out of the way, youngsters!" cried the dame to a boy and girl lounging
+near to watch the boiling, "or spattered will you be with the hog's fat.
+Take thy sister, Jan, and off with her to the Flatten Barrack. She would
+enjoy a good sledding this fine day, and that I know."
+
+"Rather would I go to the skating on the Salt River," said Jan.
+
+"But that you must not. It I forbid, for very unsafe is it now, thy
+father did observe only this morning."
+
+"Foolishness, though, was that, mother," argued Jan, "for last night
+Tunis Vanderbeck from Breucklyn came over on the ice, and told me that
+firm was it as any rock, and smooth as thy soft, pink cheek."
+
+"Thou flatterer!" laughed his mother; "but not so canst thou pull the
+wool over my eyes; so away with you both to the sledding, and here are
+two stivers with which to buy New-Year cakes at Peter Clopper's
+bake-house." And diving in the patchwork pocket hung at her side, Madam
+Van Twinkle produced the coins, which sent the children off with smiling
+faces to the hill at the end of Garden Street, stopping on the way to
+invest in the sweet New-Year cakes, stamped with a crown and breeches.
+
+Jan made short work of his; but Katrina had scarce begun to nibble her
+fluted oval when she spied an aged man, with a long gray beard, begging
+for charity.
+
+"See, Jan," she cried, "the poor, miserable old beggar! How cold and
+hungry he looks!"
+
+"Then to work should he go."
+
+"But it may be no work he has to do. Ach! the sight of him makes my
+heart to ache, and help him will I all I can." So saying, the
+kind-hearted girl darted to the mendicant's side and slipped her cake
+into his hand.
+
+"A thousand thanks, little lady!" exclaimed the man, fervently; "for I
+am near to starving, or I would not be here; and you are the first who
+has heeded me to-day."
+
+He was evidently English; but Katrina cared not for that, and, carried
+away by her feelings, added a guilder, given her at Christmas, to her
+gift of the New-Year cake, thereby calling forth a shower of
+benedictions, although the old fellow seemed strangely nervous
+meanwhile, glancing in a frightened manner at each passer-by. As soon as
+the little maid's back was turned he slunk into a dark alley and out of
+sight.
+
+"A silly noodle art thou, Katrina, thus to throw away thy presents,"
+said Jan, as they hurried on. But his sister only shook her head, and
+smiled as though quite satisfied, while her heart beat a happy roundelay
+all the short December afternoon as she slid on her wooden sled and
+frolicked with the little Dutch Vans and Vanders on the Flatten-Barrack
+Hill.
+
+Twilight was falling when the young Van Twinkles wended their way home,
+to find their bread and buttermilk ready for them by the kitchen fire,
+and their father and mother and Gretel gone to a supper of soft waffles
+and chocolate and a New-Year's-Eve dance at the Van Corlear Bouwerie.
+
+"The best parlor, does it look fine and gay, Sophy?" asked Katrina, as
+she finished her evening meal.
+
+"Dat it do," replied the old slave woman; "for waved am de sand on de
+floor like white clouds, and de brass chair-nails shine jest like little
+missy's eyes. 'Spect de ole mynheer and his vrouw come down and dance
+dis night for sure."
+
+"What mynheer, Sophy?" asked Jan.
+
+"De great mynheer in de portrait--your gran'fader, ob course. Hab you
+chillens neber heard how on New-Year Eve, when de clock strike twelve,
+down come all de pictur' folkses to shake hands and wish each oder
+'Happy New-Year,' and den, if nuffin disturb 'em, mebbe dey dance in de
+firelight."
+
+"Really, Sophy, do they?" asked the little girl.
+
+"Yah, dey do. Master Jan may laugh if he please, but right am I. My ole
+moeder hab so tole me, and wif her own eyes hab she seen de ghostes
+dances."
+
+"A rare sight it must be! I wish that I could see it," said Katrina; and
+later, when she went in to inspect the parlor, she gazed up with
+increased respect at her stolid-faced Holland ancestors.
+
+"Much would I love to see them tread a minuet!" sighed Katrina again,
+and even after her head was laid on her pillow the idea haunted her
+dreams, until, as the tall clock in the hall struck eleven, she started
+up wide-awake, with the feeling that something eventful was about to
+happen.
+
+"Almost spent is the old year!" she thought, "and soon down the picture
+folk will come to greet the new. Oh, I must, I must them see!" and
+although the household was by this time asleep, she crept out of bed,
+slipped on her clothes, and stole noiselessly down-stairs.
+
+"Still are they yet," she whispered, glancing up at the pictured faces.
+"But near the hour draws, and hide I must, or they may not come down,
+for Sophy says that spectators they do not love. Ah, there is just the
+place!" and running to the linen chest she lifted the lid, and
+clambering lightly in, nestled down among the lavender-scented sheets
+and table-cloths.
+
+"A very comfortable hiding-spot, truly!" exclaimed Katrina, as she
+placed a book beneath the cover to hold it slightly open; and so cosey
+did it prove that she grew a bit drowsy before the midnight bells chimed
+the knell of another twelvemonth. Then indeed, however, she was on the
+alert in an instant and peering eagerly out. Her corner was in shadow,
+but the ruddy glow from the hickory logs revealed the portraits still
+unmoved, and she was about to utter an exclamation of disappointment,
+when she was startled to see a door leading to the rear of the house
+suddenly swing open and the figure of a man carrying a lantern enter
+with slow and stealthy tread. An old man, apparently, with gray hair and
+beard, and a sack thrown across his shoulders. "'Tis the Old Year
+himself!" thought the fanciful girl; but the next moment she almost
+betrayed herself by a scream as she recognized the beggar to whom she
+had given her New-Year cake that very afternoon.
+
+Slowly the midnight marauder approached, and then, all at once, a
+wonderful transformation took place. The bent form became straight, the
+gray beard and hair were torn off, and a younger and not unhandsome man
+stood before the little watcher's astonished gaze.
+
+She was too dumfounded to do anything but tremble and stare, as the
+intruder seated himself at the table and ate and drank, almost snatching
+the viands in his eagerness. His appetite appeased, however, he seemed
+to hesitate; but then, with a muttered, "Well, what must be must, and
+here's for home and Emily!" he seized a silver bowl and dropped it into
+his bag, following it up with the porringers and plates, that were the
+very apple of the Dutch house-mother's eye.
+
+Too frightened to speak, poor little Katrina watched these proceedings;
+but when the thief laid hands on a certain old and beautifully engraved
+flagon, she murmured: "The loving-cup! the dear loving-cup! Oh, my
+father's heart 'twill break to lose that!"
+
+"Plenty of the needful here!" chuckled the burglar; but a moment later
+he had his surprise, for out of the shadows suddenly emerged a small,
+slight figure, and a stern voice cried, "Stop!"
+
+With a startled exclamation the man fell back, and then, as Katrina
+exclaimed, "The loving-cup that is so old--ah, take not that!" he
+dropped into a chair, ejaculating, "By St. George, 'tis the little lady
+of the cake herself!"
+
+"That is so," said Katrina.
+
+The man reddened. "Believe me, miss," he said, "I did not know this was
+your home, or naught would have tempted me here; and this is the first
+time I have ever soiled my fingers with such work as this."
+
+"Then why begin now?" asked Katrina.
+
+"Because I was down on my luck, and there seemed no other way. Listen!
+For two years I have served as a soldier in the British army, and no
+more honest one ever entered the province. I did not mind hard work, but
+my health gave out, and at last the rude fare and the homesickness I
+could stand no longer, and three days ago I deserted from the English
+fort down yonder. The officers are on my track, but, so far, disguised
+as an old beggar, I have escaped detection beneath their very noses. If
+caught I shall be flogged within an inch of my life, and, it may be,
+shot. Just over the water my wife and a blue-eyed lass like you are
+longing for my return, but, saving your guilder, I was penniless, and
+so, for the first time, determined to take what was not my own."
+
+"Poor man!" sighed Katrina, the tears starting.
+
+"To-morrow night the _Golden Lion_ sails for England. Her crew, after
+the New-Year festivities, will be dazed at least, so I can readily
+conceal myself until the ship is out at sea. Then ho! for home and my
+little Jeanie!"
+
+"And as a bad, wicked robber will you go to her?" asked the girl.
+
+"No; indeed no!" cried the man, emptying his sack. "You have saved me
+from that, little lady, as well as from starvation to-day, for I would
+not steal from you or yours. Give me but these krullers to eat while I
+am a stowaway, and all the plate I will leave."
+
+"Yes, that will I do," said Katrina, rejoiced, and she herself dropped
+the crisp cakes into the man's bag. "Now at once go, and godspeed."
+
+"But first you must promise to mention this meeting to no one until
+after the _Golden Lion_ weighs anchor at seven o'clock on New-Year's
+night."
+
+"To my mother may I not?" asked Katrina.
+
+"No, no, to nobody! Oh, remember my life is in your hands! Promise, I
+beg."
+
+His tone was so imploring the girl was touched.
+
+"I like it not, but I promise," she said.
+
+"Thank you. Farewell." And again disguised, the deserter departed, as he
+came, by a back window.
+
+Feeling as though in a dream, Katrina rearranged the disordered table,
+and then, creeping up to bed, fell so sound asleep that she never heard
+Jan when he awoke the household with his "Happy New-Years."
+
+Gayly the sunbeams glittered on the black-and-yellow gables that 1st of
+January, and fully as resplendent were the maids and matrons of New York
+in their best muslins and brocades; while Katrina presented a very
+quaint, attractive little vision when she came down in her taffeta gown
+and embroidered stomacher, with her amber beads about her neck. Her face
+was hardly in accord with her attire, however, when she found every one
+demanding, "What has become of the krullers--the New-Year krullers?"
+
+Madam Van Twinkle looked flushed and angry. "The beautiful cakes with
+which I so much trouble took!" she cried. "Ach! a bad, wicked theft it
+is, and a mystery unaccountable."
+
+"Mebbe de great ole mynheer and his vrouw gobbled 'em up," put in Sophy.
+
+"But what is worse," continued the dame, "in one big kruller, as a
+surprise, I did hide a ring of gold sent to Gretel by her godmother in
+Holland, and that too is whisked away."
+
+At this Gretel also began to bewail the loss, and suggested that
+perhaps little black Josie, Sophy's son, was the miscreant.
+
+"If so it be, to the whipping-post shall he go!" cried the enraged
+Dutchwoman, starting for the kitchen; but before she reached the door
+Katrina exclaimed, "No, mother, no; Josie is not the one."
+
+"Why, mine Katrina, what canst thou know of this?" asked Mynheer Van
+Twinkle, in amazement.
+
+"I know--I know who has taken the cakes," stammered the blushing girl;
+"but tell I cannot now."
+
+"Not tell!" gasped her mother. "Why and wherefore?"
+
+"Because my promise I have given. But when the night comes, then shall
+you know all."
+
+"Foolishness is this, Katrina," cried the good housewife, who was fast
+losing her temper as well as her cakes, "and at once I command you to
+say who has my New-Year krullers."
+
+"And my ring from Rotterdam," added Gretel.
+
+"But that I cannot. A lie would it be. Oh, my vader, canst thou not me
+trust until the nightfall?"
+
+"Surely, sweetheart. There, good vrouw, say no more, but leave the
+little one in peace. A promise thou wouldst not have her break."
+
+"Some there be better broken than kept; but whom promised she?"
+
+Katrina was silent, and now even her father looked grave. "Speak, _mijn
+kind_; whom didst thou promise?"
+
+"I cannot tell."
+
+"See you, Jacobus, 'tis stubborn she is, and wrong it looks. But list,
+Katrina; you shall speak this minute, or else to your chamber go, and
+there spend your New-Year's Day."
+
+At this mynheer puffed grimly at his pipe, and Gretel would have
+remonstrated, but without a word Katrina turned and left the parlor.
+Ascending to her little attic-room, she removed her holiday finery, and
+sat sadly down to work on her Flemish lace, trying to console herself by
+repeating: "Right am I, and I know I am right. A promise once given
+must not broken be," while the New-Year callers came and went, and the
+sound of merry greetings floated up from below.
+
+So it was scarce a happy New-Year, and the little weathercock must have
+pointed very much to the east if he considered the way the wind blew
+within-doors, for even Jan turned fractious, and declared, "There was no
+fun in calling on a parcel of old _vrouws_," and he should go to the
+turkey-shooting at Beekman's Swamp instead. But this his mother forbade.
+"Shoot you will not this day," she said, "for at fourteen, like a
+gentleman and a good Hollander should you behave. So start at once, and
+my greetings bear to the Van Pelts and Vander Voorts and Mistress
+Hogeboom," while his father carried him off with him to call on the
+dominie's wife.
+
+This visit over, however, they parted company, and Jan lingered long in
+the market-place to see the darkies dance to the rude music of horns and
+tom-toms. Here he encountered two of his chums, Nicholas Van Ripper and
+Rem Hochstrasser, carrying guns on their shoulders.
+
+"Thee, Jan? Good!" they cried. "Now come with us to the turkey-shooting.
+A prize thou art sure to win."
+
+"But I started the New-Year visits to make!" said Jan.
+
+"And paid them in the market-place!" laughed Nicholas. "Thou art a sly
+one, Jan! But great sport is there at the Swamp to-day; much better than
+the chatter of the girls and a headache to-morrow."
+
+"So think I, Nick; but I have on my _kirch_ clothes;" and Jan glanced
+down at his best galligaskins and his coat with its silver buttons.
+
+"Not a bit will it hurt them; so come along." And thus urged, Jan joined
+his friends, and was soon at Beekman's Swamp, where a bevy of youths
+were squandering their stivers in the exciting sport of firing at live
+turkeys.
+
+Nick and Rem did well, and each bore off a plump fowl, but luck seemed
+against Jan, who could not succeed in even ruffling a feather; while at
+last he had the misfortune to slip and get a rough tumble, besides
+soiling his breeches and tearing a rent in the skirt of his fine
+broadcloth coat.
+
+"Ha! ha! What will Madam Van Twinkle say to that?" laughed his
+unsympathetic companions, when they saw Jan stamping round, his little
+queue of hair, tied with an eel-skin, fairly standing out with rage.
+
+"Whatever she says, 'twill be your fault, ye dough-nuts!" he shouted,
+and would have indulged in some rather forcible Dutch epithets had not
+his cousin Tunis Vanderbeck come up at the moment, saying, "Mind it not,
+Jan, but with me come to Breucklyn to skate."
+
+"Yah; better will that be than facing the mother in this plight," said
+Jan; and he was skating across the Salt River before he remembered that
+he had been positively forbidden to venture there.
+
+"Sure art thou that the ice is strong, Tunis?" he asked.
+
+"Not so strong as it was. The thaw has weakened it some, but 'twill hold
+to-night, if--" But at that instant an ominous cracking sounded beneath
+their feet, and Tunis had just time to glide to a firmer spot before a
+scream rang through the air, and he looked back to see the dark surging
+water in an opening in the ice, and Jan's head disappearing beneath.
+
+While, in the twilight, Katrina sat by her window, thinking of blue-eyed
+English Jeanie, she was startled by a voice on the shed roof without
+calling, "Let me in, Katrina--let me in;" and on opening the casement a
+very wet and bedraggled boy tumbled at her feet, sputtering out, "Run
+for dry clothes and a hot drink, my Trina, for nearly drowned am I, and
+frozen as well."
+
+The girl hastened to obey, and not until her brother was snug and warm
+in her feather-bed did she ask, "Whatever has happened to thee, Jan?"
+
+"Why, on the river I was, and the ice it broke, and in I fell. But for
+an old cove who risked his life to save me, in Davy Jones's locker would
+I be this minute; for never a hand did Tunis Vanderbeck stir to help
+me, and unfriends will we be henceforth."
+
+"And thy _kirch_ suit is ruined. Does the mother know it?"
+
+"No; for fear of her I came in by the roof, but I met the father
+outside, and angry enough he is because I went to the shooting and on
+the river. He says that on bread and water shall I live for a week, and
+to the Philadelphia Fair shall I not go;" and a sob rose in the boy's
+throat. "But what is queerest, Katrina, the old chap who pulled me out
+seemed to know me, and gave me this for you," and Jan produced a moist,
+soggy package, which, on being undone, revealed a single broken kruller,
+in the centre of which, however, gleamed a heavy gold ring.
+
+"Good! good! Oh, glad am I!" cried Katrina; and hastening to put on her
+festival dress, when the clock chimed seven she went dancing down to the
+parlor, and creeping to her mother's side, whispered, "Now, my moeder,
+all will I tell thee."
+
+In amazement the family listened to her story of the midnight visitor,
+and when she ended by slipping the ring on Gretel's finger, saying, "No
+common thief was he, for this he sent me by Jan, whom he has saved from
+a grave in the Salt River," the Dutchwoman caught her to her heart,
+sobbing, "Oh, my Katrina, forgive thy mother, for it was in my temper I
+spoke this morning, and a true, brave girl hast thou been. To think that
+but for thee our rare old silver would be on its way to England!" Gretel
+too hugged her rapturously, and the tears were in Mynheer Van Twinkle's
+eyes as he asked:
+
+"How can I repay my daughter for saving the loving-cup of my ancestors,
+and for her lonely day above?"
+
+"By forgiving Jan, father, and letting him come to the New-Year supper.
+Disobedient has he been, I know, but well punished is he, and he is full
+of sorrow."
+
+"Well, then, for thee, it shall be so."
+
+So Jan was summoned down, and a truly festal evening was held within the
+home circle, beneath the gaze of the old mynheer and his vrouw, who
+beamed benignantly from their heavy frames.
+
+The _Golden Lion_ sailed true to time, and never again was the deserter
+heard of on this side of the Atlantic; but for long after Katrina was
+pointed out as "the blue-eyed maid who saved the family plate and gave
+away Vrouw Van Twinkle's New-Year krullers."
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+THE SIGN OF THE SERPENT
+
+A Story of Louisiana in the Early Eighteenth Century
+
+
+The two Vidals--the father Captain and second in command at Fort
+Rosalie,[B] and the son Jean, who wore the stripes of a sub-lieutenant,
+though his face had scarcely a sign of beard on it yet--paced the
+parapet of the fort in absorbed talk. Below them rolled the brown flood
+of the Mississippi, gilded into tawny gold by the setting sun. In the
+splendor of that glow stood out in bold relief the galley which had
+arrived from New Orleans that day. Young Jean, who had been absent in
+the little Louisiana capital for two months, and had received during the
+visit his commission from Governor Perier, had been a passenger, and was
+now eagerly listening to the news of the fort.
+
+  [B] Fort Rosalie, during the early years of the eighteenth
+      century one of the advance-posts of the Louisiana colony, was
+      built on the bluff where now stands the beautiful city of
+      Natchez. This whole region for many miles up and down the river
+      and inland was the seat of the Natchez nation, originally a
+      Toltec race which had emigrated from Mexico shortly after the
+      Spanish conquest.
+
+"It is almost word for word as I tell thee," said the senior. "'Twas a
+month since that Monsieur le Commandant sent for Big Serpent to tell him
+the Governor's wish, but not, as Monsieur Perier would have chosen to
+make it, the beginning of negotiation. For all feel that it is not well
+the Natchez should remain in power so near the fort. But Chopart's words
+were like the lash of the slave-whip.
+
+"'Does not my white brother know,' answered the Great Sun of the
+Natchez, 'that my people have lived in the village of White Apple for
+more years than there are hairs in the plaited scalp-lock which hangs
+from the top of my head to my waist?'
+
+"'Foolish savage!' said Chopart. 'What ties of friendship can there be
+between our races? Enough for you to know that you must obey your
+master's orders, as I obey mine.'
+
+"'We have other lands; take them, but leave the village of White Apple
+to the Natchez. There is our temple, there the bones of our forefathers
+have slept since we came to the banks of the Father of Waters,' pleaded
+Big Serpent.
+
+"'Within the next moon comes the galley from the big village of the
+French. If White Apple is not then delivered to my soldiers, and your
+people gone, the great chief of the Natchez will be sent down the river,
+bound hand and foot, to rot in prison. Go. I have spoken,' and Monsieur
+le Commandant waved Big Serpent out of his presence."
+
+"And do the Natchez submit? Will Big Serpent give up their beautiful
+village? Mon Dieu! It's a shame! It might have been managed differently
+hadst thou been made commandant instead of Chopart, _mon pere_."
+
+"Tut! tut!" said the father. "Chopart may carry his load, and welcome.
+'Twould have irked me much to have done the Governor's will, for, after
+all, 'tis the sword, not the scabbard, which kills. Warning of treachery
+and conspiracy has come from White Apple, for thou knowest the old
+Princess had a French husband and loves his race. Yet her son, the
+chief, would bleed out every French drop in his veins if he could. I
+like not the signs, though only five days ago Big Serpent came to Fort
+Rosalie, and when Monsieur le Commandant flung the report of foul play
+in his teeth, the chief smiled like a baby in the face of its mother,
+and answered: 'Let my brother believe what he sees. On the seventh day
+hence my people will bring thee more than the tribute due for the time,
+thou hast granted, and will then give up White Apple to the French.' Yet
+Sergeant Beaujean, who has been at the village since, says there are no
+signs of preparation for departure, and that warriors are pouring in
+from all the outlying country. We shall know in two days more. In the
+mean time, Chopart reviles at all advice to keep the garrison under
+arms, with closed gates and loaded cannon. The insolent calls doubters
+cowards and old women. My sword should answer that taunt," continued the
+grizzled soldier, fiercely, "were it not for a bad example at this time.
+Big Serpent, though young in years, is as old in guile as the most
+ancient wiseacre of his tribe. So I fear to have thee go to visit Akbal
+now, _mon fils_, for the chief's brother is sure to be deep in any
+mischief brewing."
+
+"Better reason, then," answered Jean, "to make the venture. Time flies
+swiftly, and I, surer than another, could go safely and might find a
+clew to hidden danger. Yet 'tis hard to break bread and play the spy."
+
+Captain Vidal paced up and down, his features working in doubt, as the
+new thought forced its way to acceptance. He looked wistfully at his
+only son. "And thou wouldst go there and pit thy young wits against the
+Indian's devilish cunning? Well, it may do! Akbal was ever thy sworn
+brother and hunting comrade." So it was arranged without further words,
+but the father's convulsive hand-clasp, when Jean, in hunter's
+buckskins, bade him good-bye at sunrise next morning, proved how loath
+he was.
+
+It was ten o'clock when Jean arrived in White Apple, which was about
+fifteen miles from Fort Rosalie. Eight miles lay through the black muck
+of a swamp where even the wariest foot and quickest eye found their way
+with trouble. The foul morass into which the river highlands sloped down
+on the landward side gave the shortest road. But its profusion of deadly
+reptile life wriggling and hissing at every turn encompassed the narrow
+path across the little knolls and tussocks which give the only
+foot-grip, with no slight peril to a blundering step. An easier route
+meant nearly double the distance.
+
+Almost the first greeting was that of Akbal, but his manner was distant.
+He knew of Jean's long absence, but he asked no questions with the
+tongue, though his eye was keenly curious.
+
+"I come to chase the buck with my friend once more before the Natchez
+seek a new hunting-ground," said Jean.
+
+"Akbal not hunt to-day," was the answer, in broken French; "must listen
+to wisdom of great chiefs in council. They meet even now in the Temple
+of the Sun. Go; the woods are full of deer and turkeys; but first must
+eat, for Akbal's friend much hungry from his walk."
+
+This hospitable dismissal discomfited Jean, for it seemed to close the
+gates to further knowledge. The breakfast of venison and sweet maize got
+no seasoning of cheer in the gloomy looks of the boyish chief. Through
+the door of the lodge the young Frenchman saw the lines of Natchez
+warriors stalking through the streets towards the temple, while not a
+sound arose in the village. All moved as silently as if they were a
+marching troop of phantoms. Akbal sat patiently as a bronze statue,
+waiting his guest's motion to depart.
+
+In the centre of the village stood the temple--a huge, round structure
+built of logs, now wrinkled with years, and surmounted with a
+cylindrical roof thatched with swamp-canes, leaves, and Spanish-moss in
+an impervious mat. It rose twenty feet higher than the tallest lodges,
+and from one side extended an arched thick-set hedge, embowering a long
+passage to the adjacent forest, a quarter of a mile away. Here the
+priests and medicine-men of the Sun were wont to seclude themselves from
+the rest of the tribe.
+
+The way to accomplish his quest suddenly flashed on Jean's mind. Once he
+parted from Akbal, seemingly to plunge into the forest, he could make
+his way to the exit of the long, bowery avenue, and thence come to the
+outside of the temple. There, it might be, he could learn all he wished,
+though with great peril to his life. So when the young chief pressed his
+hand in a sad and silent adieu, Jean, after a brief push into the
+tangled brake, fetched a detour, and found himself at the mouth of the
+passage. Through its dusky green light he moved cautiously forward to a
+coign of vantage. This he found in the shrinkage of two ill-fitting
+logs, which gave a space for seeing and hearing.
+
+In the centre of the temple, on a rude stone altar, smoked the
+unquenched fire which had never died since the natal spark had flamed in
+a Mexican temple two hundred years before. This half a dozen hideously
+painted priests fed with fragrant barks and gums. Around them five
+hundred warriors squatted on the ground, and passed the council-pipe,
+while the priests mumbled and chanted, and a portion of the sacred band
+drew forth soft and monotonous music from long reed instruments. A
+rattlesnake, coiled around the right arm of the chief priest, swayed its
+crest with an undulating motion to the cadences of the music, and its
+bright eyes seemed to watch every motion with malign intentness, as if
+it were the guiding spirit of the council. The braves wore no war-paint,
+for their expedition was not meant to blazon its own purpose; but their
+faces, so far as they could be seen through the smoke, were distorted
+with such ferocity and lust of blood that they could dispense with the
+help of pigments. And so the priests chanted, and the players played
+their soft melody, and the high-priest stroked his serpent's hideous
+head as it curved and swayed to the rhythm of the tune, while the
+watching Jean was maddened by the delay and the passage of time and
+opportunity. At last, perhaps mindful of some signal from the
+high-priest, the snake darted its full length and struck with open mouth
+as if at some enemy,[C] Big Serpent arose from the seated ranks.
+
+  [C] The rattlesnake was sacred to the Sun God of the Natchez,
+      and was made to play an important part in their religious
+      ceremonies, and the mummery which entered, too, into their war
+      councils. Something similar exists in the rites of the Moqui
+      Pueblos to-day--a race supposed also to have been of Toltec
+      origin.
+
+The Great Sun's oration to his warriors, spoken in the Indian tongue,
+was mostly jargon to the listener, but he construed enough of it to
+unravel the Natchez plot. Under the guise of paying their tribute, they
+would surprise the fort the next morning.
+
+Jean waited for nothing more, but withdrew swiftly, and dashed into the
+forest. To reach Fort Rosalie as quickly as possible he took his way
+again through the noisome swamp which formed so much of the short-cut
+to the French post. He had found his way well towards the heart of that
+place of gloom and reptilian life. Inspection of every tuft of grass and
+weed now made progress slow, and Jean looked forward to a few moments of
+rest on the hummock twenty feet off which projected from the edge of a
+canebrake. How lucky, he thought, that he had escaped without detection!
+On top of this thought came the shock of a challenge, which made his
+heart leap.
+
+"_Halte, la!_" and the figure of Akbal pushed through the reeds. His gun
+lay in the hollow of one arm, and from the other hand dangled a silver
+clasp with which Jean's hunting-shirt had been fastened, and which he
+had not missed till this moment. It had been found in the bowery lane
+near the temple.
+
+"Better Akbal than another Natchez bring this back to his French
+brother," he went on, with a note of mockery in his voice. "Jan Akbal's
+prisoner; no hurt him; to-morrow set free."
+
+Quick as a flash Jean's gun swung to his shoulder.
+
+"Stand aside, Akbal, or I shoot you dead. It must be that or pledge of
+free passage."
+
+The two stood like duellists with levelled weapons, waiting for the
+word, with stern faces and flashing eyes. This was not the time nor
+place to remember old comradeship and the rite of blood-brotherhood
+which had once been solemnized between them. That rite swore them to an
+undying amity, as if born of the same mother and they had tasted the red
+drops hot from each other's veins in testimony. But all this was
+forgotten. To Jean, Akbal was the barrier to prevent his saving the
+garrison. To Akbal, Jean was the agent bent on foiling his people's
+revolt from French oppression. But though their fingers touched
+triggers, they did not press them. Perhaps this hesitation would have
+lasted but a second.
+
+But now Jean heard a whirring noise that disturbed even his tense train
+of thinking with a cold chill. He dashed his musket butt at something,
+but it flecked him like a giant whip-lash. A monstrous rattlesnake had
+fastened its fangs deep in his thigh. Another duellist had stepped to
+the fore. Akbal saw the snake spring, and was himself almost as swift in
+leaping the interval. He shook his head as he saw the enormous size of
+the serpent, which was in the deadliest season of its venom, wriggling
+with a broken back.
+
+"Much bad bite, but try save Jean," said he, as he helped him across to
+the larger hummock. Luckily Jean's canteen was full of brandy, and this
+he gulped down eagerly, while the Indian cut away the buckskin from his
+leg. Two needle-point punctures, to be sure, seemed scarcely worth
+bothering about, but with an apology, "Knife much hurt, but good," he
+plunged the keen-edged blade into the flesh, cutting out the envenomed
+parts, and followed it by applying his lips and sucking at the wound for
+a full five minutes.
+
+"Fine weed sometimes cure snake-bite. Big bush over there," and he
+danced across the bubbling marsh to a bog-oak with a thick mass of green
+at its base. The swollen leg and the pain which gnawed through the
+drowsiness of the working venom told Akbal that there was no time to be
+lost. Flint and steel quickly struck fire, and steeping leaves and roots
+he made hot tea and a poultice. So the Indian nurse fought the terrible
+poison in the veins of the patient all that afternoon and all the night
+long in the firefly-lit darkness of that evil swamp.
+
+The panther screams, which mingled harshly with the subtler horror of
+things hissing and splashing in the fetid pools, passed into the dreams
+of Jean. Copper-colored fiends with serpent heads storming the palisades
+of Fort Rosalie and shrieking the Natchez war-whoop sank their long
+curved fangs in the body after the knife had rifled the head. "_Mon
+pere! mon pere! sauve mon pere!_" he cried, in his agonized nightmare,
+and then awoke, clutching Akbal's arm in a sweat of despair.
+
+"Jan better now, stronger; no more bad dream," said Akbal, who
+recognized signs of coming strength; and indeed when daylight struggled
+into the swamp the color of the French boy's face had got back its lusty
+red.
+
+"Come, come, we must hasten to the fort! I am myself once more," and
+Jean stumbled to his feet to fall back again with the sore stiffness of
+his wounded thigh. Then he remembered the meaning of Akbal's presence
+with a frown. The comrade-foe dragged the heart out of that look with a
+word:
+
+"Go soon. Akbal no stop Jan now." He spoke with a proud sadness and
+submission in his tone. The serpent omen had come from the Sun God--not
+even that deadly bite could stop the young Frenchman's return, and he
+himself had been but the instrument of duty. So he carefully bound the
+sore leg, and they started across the boggy waste, Jean leaning on his
+arm and limping with a determined step. It took long to traverse that
+quaking and slippery road, and the sun climbed up the sky, and Jean
+became half crazed with anxiety, for his leg would only do so much work,
+with all the help of a human crutch.
+
+At last they emerged from the morass and began to climb the upland,
+toiling on with the fiercest energy of Jean's tortured spirit. Hark!
+that was the sound of cannon from the fort, and then they heard the
+faint crackling of guns. "Too late!" half shrieked Jean Vidal, and he
+sank on the ground with the reaction, hopeless, helpless, and his face
+streaming with tears of rage and grief. Akbal dragged him to a sheltered
+place under a bank, and leaped like a deer up the hill. He believed in
+the sign of the Sun God, for the rattlesnake was the totem of the
+Natchez nation. He did not reason, in his simple, superstitious loyalty,
+that he could have left Jean to die of the serpent's bite. He only knew
+that he had been inspired to cure him. Now he believed that the further
+mission of salvation had been passed from Jean to him, and the French
+blood in his veins warmed to the dedication. The lives of the garrison
+might yet be kept from the tomahawk and the torture stake.
+
+The fort was already in the hands of the Natchez when Akbal arrived on
+the bloody scene. The murdering crew gathered to his assembly whoop,
+with Big Serpent at their head. He told the story of the supposed
+miracle with fervent eloquence, and the lives of those who had not
+already fallen in battle were spared, including Captain Vidal, for these
+bloodthirsty warriors of the Natchez were pious in their way, and
+believed the sign of the serpent. Jean Vidal, too, remembered the stroke
+of that terrible fang with something like superstitious gratitude. Had
+it not been for that he and Akbal would probably have slain each other
+where they stood, and every Frenchman in the fort would have been
+butchered or reserved for a more fiendish death. As it was, Chopart was
+the only one to suffer execution, and he justly expiated the deeds of a
+cold-blooded tyrant.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+A DRUMMER OF WARBURTON'S
+
+How a Boy Held Fort George at Cape Canso, in 1757
+
+
+A few hours ago I found an odd-shaped bit of blackened brass. The thing
+lies before me now as I write. It is a drum-hook. I know this for the
+simple reason that I was once a drummer-boy myself, and could not be
+mistaken regarding such a familiar object. I found this drum-hook among
+a lot of other odds and ends at the bottom of a well in an old,
+long-abandoned fortification. The poor scrap of silent metal brings to
+mind the tale of Rupert Haydon, drummer-boy in one of the old line
+regiments. His deed of heroism was performed at this same old fort which
+I have to-day been ransacking. Perhaps this drum-hook was once used by
+him! It is not at all unlikely.
+
+By turning to your map of North America you can easily distinguish Cape
+Canso, at the eastern extremity of the mainland of Nova Scotia. Upon an
+island, about a mile from the shore and forming with it the harbor of
+Canso, is the grass-grown fortress which I have mentioned. The name of
+the island is George's; the fort has had several high-sounding titles.
+Why should it not? It is old--older perhaps than others with claims of
+easier proof. In 1518, over a century before the Pilgrims landed at
+Plymouth, legend says that Baron de Lery threw up the first embankments
+and claimed the country for the crown of France. Several times this fort
+has been besieged and captured, at heavy loss of life. New England sent
+expeditions against it. The bloodthirsty Indians repeatedly raided the
+place. In 1745 Pepperell and his valiant little army of Massachusetts,
+New Hampshire, and Connecticut militia remained here for some weeks, in
+order to acquire drill and discipline before moving upon the boasted
+Louisburg. And many another martial display has this neglected old fort
+witnessed, and personages celebrated in our history have walked within
+its ramparts upon occasion.
+
+In the year 1757 Fort George, as it was then called, had as its garrison
+a small detachment from Colonel Warburton's regiment of foot. This
+trifling force was compelled to watch over a wide extent of territory in
+addition to the special place they occupied. France and England were
+again at war, and both regular expeditions and lawless guerillas
+abounded.
+
+On a certain day in midsummer the garrison embarked upon a small vessel
+and sailed away to the relief of a threatened settlement. Rupert Haydon,
+the drummer-boy, was left in charge of the fort. With him were several
+women, wives of soldiers, and their small children.
+
+"We shall be gone but a week at most, drummer," Captain Peabody had
+announced. "It suits me not to leave women and stores so ill protected,
+but the commands of my superiors must be obeyed. However, it is scarce
+likely that the enemy will have knowledge of the fort's weakness in time
+to profit thereby."
+
+The drummer-boy stood at attention and saluted as the soldiers marched
+out through the covered way. With the aid of the women he hoisted the
+drawbridge and closed the massive timber gates. Then, scrambling up on
+top of the parapet, he watched the little sailing craft, her decks all
+bright with the scarlet-coated warriors, pass out through the narrow
+harbor entrance and disappear from view around the first headland.
+Scarcely had the transport so vanished, when Rupert's keen eyes
+discovered another vessel making for the harbor from the opposite side.
+
+Mere supposition was useless. The newcomer might prove to be a friend.
+If an enemy, the chance of being let alone was problematical. It was now
+too late to recall the recently departed garrison. Upon the drummer's
+young shoulders lay the whole burden of maintaining the dignity of the
+English flag.
+
+Rupert Haydon was only a poorly educated boy, but he must have had a
+great deal of latent talent. Even while gazing in consternation at the
+fast-approaching vessel, he mentally mapped out a plan of campaign.
+Hastily gathering the women about him, he explained the matter to them,
+and secured their aid. They were all well used to the happening of the
+unexpected, and inured to danger and fatigue. The wife of a British
+soldier has never had an easy lot. These rugged-looking though
+golden-hearted women donned some uniforms left behind by their husbands,
+and became, in outward appearance at least, full-fledged soldiers. The
+six small cannon mounted in the fort's bastions were loaded, small-arms
+served out, and ammunition placed conveniently to hand. One of the
+soldier-women mounted guard upon the ramparts, and marched up and down,
+in plain view, with musket upon shoulder. The English ensign was, of
+course, flying from the tall staff in the centre of the redoubt.
+
+As the vessel drew nearer, the little garrison began to bustle with
+activity, and continued in the same fashion for some while. Two of the
+soldier-women would come out of the fort, stroll down to the shore,
+examine the stranger with an apparently mild curiosity, and then walk
+off together over the hills. Meanwhile the others, including Rupert,
+would come and go, disappearing and reappearing in all directions with
+the aid of the rocky ravines and clumps of trees upon the island. The
+idea of all this was to convince the new-comers, whoever they might be,
+that the fort's garrison remained unimpaired, and took no special notice
+of a single vessel. That the scheme had a certain effect was shown in
+the fact that the stranger came to anchor far down the harbor, well out
+of range of Fort George's cannon. It looked very much as if the
+appearance of these redcoats coming and going about the island had
+impressed her commander unfavorably.
+
+After some delay the ship hoisted a French ensign, and a small boat put
+off from her side and headed for the fort landing. This boat contained
+three men--two rowing, and one in the stern holding aloft a piece of
+white cloth. It was evidently a flag of truce, coming to parley.
+
+Although his worst fears were now realized, and they plainly had a
+formidable enemy to deal with, Rupert never wavered, but proceeded to
+dispose of his forces in the best manner possible. Leaving only the
+sentry upon the parapet, he marched out of the fort at the head of the
+others, as if they merely constituted a suitable escorting party. One of
+the squad he had equipped beforehand with a flag of truce similar to
+that carried by the man in the boat. The drummer drew up his little
+company in a single rank upon the glacis, about half-way between the
+intrenchments and the water's edge. At such a distance their disguises
+could not be discovered. Alone he advanced to the border of the
+pebble-strewn strand, and there awaited the coming of the emissary.
+
+The latter was wary of approaching too hastily. He bade his oarsmen back
+the skiff stern first to within ten or fifteen yards of the shore. Then
+he stopped them, and, while they kept the boat in position with gentle
+strokes, he held converse with the intrepid drummer by means of lusty
+shoutings.
+
+"I wish to speak with your Commandant," began the stranger, using good
+English, yet with a decided Gallic accent. "You are only a child.... A
+drummer-boy?... Am I not right?... I judged so by your small stature and
+pretty coat.... Inform the Commandant of your fort that I desire a few
+words with him."
+
+"It is impossible," replied Rupert, coolly.
+
+"What? Impossible?"
+
+"Yes; I regret to say that the Commandant will not be able to see you at
+present. But I am his representative, and can also act as your messenger
+if you have something of importance to transmit."
+
+"O-ho! We are very high and mighty, it seems!" retorted the stranger,
+angrily. "Like should have like for meals. I will not be so civil as I
+first intended. Tell your Commandant that my name is Rabentine--Captain
+Rabentine. I have the honor of commanding _La Belle Cerise_, privateer,
+of St. Malo."
+
+"A French privateer!" ejaculated Rupert.
+
+"Just so," went on Captain Rabentine, looking from the drummer to his
+escort, up at the fort, and back again to the drummer, with some
+appearance of suspicion.
+
+"I had thought you were a navy frigate," rejoined Rupert, promptly. "We
+are getting rusty for the want of a little fighting."
+
+The other seemed slightly taken aback at this statement.
+
+"Perhaps you may have such a chance even yet," he growled.
+
+"Well, Captain Rabentine," cried the boy, courteously, "what else am I
+to say to the Commandant? For surely you took not all this trouble
+merely to let us know whom our visitor might be?"
+
+"Inform him," shouted the privateer Captain, waxing wroth, "that I had
+intended simply to lay in harbor here and weather out the coming gale.
+That a good prize-ship is more to my liking than an empty fort! Perhaps
+there might even have been a case of rare wine sent ashore by way of
+compliment. But as he chooses to be so distant, and sends a drummer-boy
+as fitting ambassador to a French Captain, I shall give myself the
+pleasure of--But, pshaw! there is no money in this for my owners. Inform
+your Commandant that I have a mind to anchor farther up the harbor,
+where the shelter is good, for a few days. That I will not molest him if
+he leaves me alone. There you have it in a nutshell. Go, and haste
+quickly with the answer."
+
+Gravely turning on his heel the drummer strode back up the hill, joined
+his waiting escort, and marched with them to the fort. He was gone upon
+this pretended mission some little time; quite long enough further to
+exasperate the privateer Captain.
+
+"Truly 'tis a matter of wonderful ceremony," he sneered, when Rupert,
+after repeating the former precautionary measures with his escort, was
+once more at speaking distance. "All this folderol is wearisome. Your
+Commandant may regret not having sent an officer before we are through
+with the thing. Did you sufficiently impress him with the fact that I
+am not one to be trifled with? Does he realize that his garrison can
+scarcely outnumber my crew? _La Belle Cerise_ carries one hundred and
+fifty-four as natty sailors as ever swung boarding-pikes, and at a pinch
+we can spare a round hundred for landing-party and still have enough on
+board to work our biggest guns. He should be thankful that I show an
+inclination to leave his puny fort untouched. What has he to say?"
+
+"Our two nations being at war at the present time," announced the
+drummer, guardedly, "I am to tell you that we can offer no harbor unless
+you care to surrender yourself and crew as prisoners, and your ship as
+lawful prize. Failing this, you must--"
+
+"What? Zounds!" howled the easily excited Frenchman. "Your Commandant
+may think this good jesting, but I do not share his opinions. Tell him
+to look to his defences. The flag of France shall once more wave above
+them. We will attack at once, and for every poor fellow I lose in this
+worthless assault, two of your survivors shall be strung up to die.
+Give way, my boys!" he cried, addressing his oarsmen.
+
+The boat sped off to the vessel. The drummer and his little party
+returned within the fort, and prepared as best they could for what was
+to follow.
+
+Almost immediately after the arrival of the privateer Captain on board
+his ship, three great pinnaces were lowered to the water and filled with
+men. The glitter from naked cutlasses, inlaid pistols, and carefully
+held muskets could easily be distinguished among them. This flotilla was
+soon ready, and at once started for the fort landing. Luckily for the
+trivial band of defenders the wind was increasing to such an extent that
+Captain Rabentine did not consider it wise to attempt manoeuvring his
+ship in an unbuoyed and dangerous harbor. Therefore the flotilla was
+without any aid from the guns of _La Belle Cerise_. Moreover, the waves
+were commencing to run high, and the overloaded boats labored heavily.
+It was necessary to keep them headed to the seas as much as possible,
+and, in consequence, their progress towards the shore was rendered
+extremely slow.
+
+Rupert Haydon and his improvised garrison were all ready. The loaded
+cannon were trained as nearly as could be upon the approaching boats.
+The women soldiers had kissed their children a fond good-bye, and shut
+them up in the bomb-proof magazine, away from danger of flying
+projectiles.
+
+When the flotilla had arrived within easy range, the young drummer
+commenced discharging the battery as fast as he could pull the lanyards.
+After him hurried the women, reloading the heated cannon. The roar of
+the discharge came re-echoing back from the rocky cliffs repeated over
+and over again, and the smoke-clouds temporarily hid the fort from view.
+
+This unskilful volley went wide of the mark, as was to be expected under
+the circumstances, and yet inflicted great damage upon the
+privateersmen. The thing came about after the following fashion: Upon
+the very beginning of the cannonade, the officer in command of the
+leading boat had bade his rowers swing their craft directly head on to
+the fort, thus presenting as small a target as possible. Those in the
+second boat, however, more intent upon watching the course of the
+projectiles than anything else, had not noticed this manoeuvre, and
+so, before anything could be done to prevent it, came smashing against
+the other's gunwale. In the heavy sea then running this was specially
+disastrous. The stricken boat had her side stove in, and the on-comer
+was overturned. Both crews quickly found themselves struggling in the
+water. Well convinced of the hopelessness of continuing their present
+assault, the men in the remaining pinnace confined their efforts to
+rescuing drowning comrades and getting out of range again as quickly as
+possible.
+
+The gale had now increased considerably, and its gathering force gave
+promise of still fiercer might. By the time the survivors of the boat
+expedition had returned to their ship the day was drawing close to
+twilight. Captain Rabentine well realized his double danger. Failing
+shelter, which could only be found farther up the harbor, and in range
+of the fort's cannon, he must put to sea. He was wild with anger at his
+repulse. What would have been his condition of mind if he had known that
+the defenders consisted merely of a boy and a few women dressed in
+soldier clothes?
+
+Hastily ordering the cable slipped, Captain Rabentine saw to the
+spreading of some small storm-sails, and tried to beat out of the
+inhospitable harbor. But even here fortune seemed to be against him. The
+full flood-tide was running, and although _La Belle Cerise_ strutted
+bravely, she could make no perceptible offing. The only road to safety
+lay directly past the fort and out the other entrance. The privateer
+Captain well knew that one lucky shot might disable his ship, and cause
+him to lose control over her. In such a wind and upon such a coast this
+meant almost certain death and destruction. But it appeared to be his
+only chance, and he had to take it.
+
+Down on the wind swept the privateer. Her decks were awash with foam.
+She rolled and pitched like a mad thing. Her guns were lashed fast to
+the deck ring-bolts. It would have been suicidal to try to use them in
+such a sea. The crew clung to shrouds and railings, gazing ruefully upon
+the nearing battlements which they had so unsuccessfully attempted to
+assail. In a few minutes they were almost abreast of the green hill.
+Scarcely a hundred yards distant were the grinning embrasures, from
+which protruded the muzzles of cannon in plain view.
+
+[Illustration: SHE ROLLED AND PITCHED LIKE A MAD THING]
+
+Within the fort Rupert Haydon stood ready, lanyard in hand. The guns had
+been more carefully sighted this time, and he felt sure that they could
+not all miss such a monstrous mark. One pull upon the blackened cord and
+the chances for a prosperous voyage of _La Belle Cerise_ of St. Malo
+would be small. For a second he hesitated. Then dropping the lanyard,
+cried:
+
+"No, no. It would be murder, not battle."
+
+Seizing the white flag of truce that had already been used in the
+preliminary negotiations, and leaping upon the parapet, he waved it to
+and fro.
+
+The meaning was instantly comprehended on board of the privateer. Not to
+be outdone in courtesy, some sailors, at risk of life and limb,
+scrambled aft to their own halyards. As the ship swept by, the proud
+ensign of France descended to the deck in salute to the drummer-boy of
+Warburton's. Ere it was hoisted again, _La Belle Cerise_ was a receding
+speck upon the darkening, storm-swept ocean.
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+ROGERS' RANGERS
+
+The Famous New Hampshire Scouts of the Old French War
+
+
+Rogers' Rangers were a famous partisan corps during the old French War.
+Besides the regular forces employed, there were irregular or partisan
+bodies, composed of Canadian French and their Indian allies on one side,
+and English frontiersmen on the other. They acted as scouts and rangers
+for either army, guarding trains, procuring intelligence, and
+intercepting supplies destined for the enemy. Both were composed of
+picked men, skilled in woodcraft, and excellent marksmen. One of Rogers'
+companies was composed entirely of Indians in their native costume.
+
+The Rangers were a body of hardy and resolute young men, principally
+from New Hampshire. They were accustomed to hunting and inured to
+hardships, and from frequent contact with the Indians they had become
+familiar with their language and customs. Every one of these rugged
+foresters was a dead shot, and could hit an object the size of a dollar
+at a hundred yards.
+
+There was no idleness in the Rangers' camp. They were obliged to be
+constantly on the alert, and to keep a vigilant watch upon the enemy.
+They made long and fatiguing journeys into his country on snow-shoes in
+midwinter in pursuit of his marauding parties, often camping in the
+forest without a fire, to avoid discovery, and without other food than
+the game they had killed on the march. On more than one occasion they
+made prisoners of the French sentinels at the very gates of Crown Point
+and Ticonderoga, their strongholds. They were the most formidable body
+of men ever employed in Indian warfare, and were especially dreaded by
+their French and Indian foes.
+
+It was in this school that Israel Putnam, John Stark, and others were
+trained for future usefulness in the struggle for American Independence.
+Several British officers, attracted by this exciting and hazardous as
+well as novel method of campaigning, joined as volunteers in some of
+their expeditions. Among them was the young Lord Howe, who during this
+tour of duty formed a strong friendship for Stark and Putnam, both of
+whom were with him when he fell at Ticonderoga shortly afterwards.
+
+Major Robert Rogers, who raised and commanded this celebrated corps, was
+a native of Dunbarton, New Hampshire. Tall and well proportioned, but
+rough in feature, he was noted for strength and activity, and was the
+leader in athletic sports, not only in his own neighborhood, but for
+miles around.
+
+Rogers' lieutenant was John Stark, afterwards the hero of Bennington.
+When in his twenty-fourth year Stark, while out with a hunting-party,
+was captured by some St. Francis Indians and taken to their village.
+While here he had to run the gauntlet. For this cruel sport the young
+warriors of the tribe arranged themselves in two lines, each armed with
+a rod or club to strike the captive as he passed them, singing some
+provoking words taught him for the occasion, intended to stimulate their
+wrath against the unfortunate victim.
+
+Eastman, one of Stark's companions when he was taken, was the first to
+run the gauntlet and was terribly mauled. Stark's turn came next. Making
+a sudden rush, he knocked down the nearest Indian, and wresting his club
+from him, struck out right and left, dealing such vigorous blows as he
+ran that he made it extremely lively for the Indians, without receiving
+much injury himself. This feat greatly pleased the old Indians who were
+looking on, and they laughed heartily at the discomfiture of the young
+men.
+
+When the Indians directed him to hoe corn, Stark cut up the young corn
+and flung his hoe into the river, declaring that it was the business of
+squaws and not of warriors. Stark was at length ransomed by his friends
+on payment of L100 to his captors.
+
+During the Revolutionary war Stark's services were rendered at the most
+critical moments, and were of the highest value to his country. At
+Bunker Hill he commanded at the rail fence on the left of the redoubt,
+holding the post long enough to insure the safety of his overpowered and
+retreating countrymen. At the capture of the Hessians at Trenton he led
+the van of Sullivan's division, and at Bennington he struck the decisive
+blow that paralyzed Burgoyne and made his surrender inevitable.
+
+Skilful and brave as were the Rangers, they were not always successful.
+The French partisans, under good leaders, with their wily and formidable
+Indian allies, well versed in forest strategy, on one occasion inflicted
+dire disaster upon them.
+
+Near Fort Ticonderoga, in the winter of 1757, Rogers with 180 men
+attacked and dispersed a party of Indians, inflicting upon them a severe
+loss. This, however, was but a small part of the force which, under De
+la Durantaye and De Langry, French officers of reputation, were fully
+prepared to meet the Rangers, of whose movements they had been
+thoroughly informed beforehand. The party Rogers had dispersed was
+simply a decoy.
+
+The Rangers had thrown down their packs, and were scattered in pursuit
+of the flying savages, when they suddenly found themselves confronted
+with the main body of the enemy, by whom they were largely outnumbered
+and of whose presence they were wholly unsuspicious. Nearly fifty of the
+Rangers fell at the first onslaught; the remainder retreated to a
+position in which they could make a stand. Here, under such cover as the
+trees and rocks afforded, they fought with their accustomed valor, and
+more than once drove back their numerous foes. Repeated attacks were
+made upon them both in front and on either flank, the enemy rallying
+after each repulse, and manifesting a courage and determination equal to
+those of the Rangers. So close was the conflict that the opposing
+parties were often intermingled, and in general were not more than
+twenty yards asunder. The fight was a series of duels, each combatant
+singling out a particular foe--a common practice in Indian fighting.
+
+This unequal contest had continued an hour and a half, and the Rangers
+had lost more than half their number. After doing all that brave men
+could do, the remainder retreated in the best manner possible, each for
+himself. Several who were wounded or fatigued were taken by the pursuing
+savages. A singular circumstance about this battle was that it was
+fought by both sides upon snow-shoes.
+
+Rogers, closely pursued, made his escape by outwitting the Indians who
+pressed upon him--such at least is the tradition. The precipitous cliffs
+near the northern end of Lake George, since called Rogers' Rock, has on
+one side a sharp and steep descent hundreds of feet to the lake. Gaining
+this point, Rogers threw his rifle and other equipments down the rocks.
+Then, unbuckling the straps of his snow-shoes, and turning round, he
+replaced them, the toes still pointing towards the lake. This was the
+work of a moment. He then walked back in his tracks from the edge of
+the cliff into the woods and disappeared just as the Indians, sure of
+their prey, reached the spot. To their amazement, they saw two tracks
+towards the cliff, none from it, and concluded that two Englishmen had
+thrown themselves down the precipice, preferring to be dashed to pieces
+rather than be captured. Soon a rapidly receding figure on the ice below
+attracted their notice, and the baffled savages, seeing that the
+redoubtable Ranger had safely effected the perilous descent, gave up the
+chase, fully believing him to be under the protection of the Great
+Spirit.
+
+By a wonderful exercise of his athletic powers, Rogers, availing himself
+of the projecting branches of the trees which lined the rocky ravines in
+his course, had succeeded in swinging himself from the top to the bottom
+of this precipitous cliff. It was a fortunate escape for him, for if
+captured he would surely have been burned alive.
+
+In this unfortunate affair the Rangers had eight officers and one
+hundred men killed. Their losses, however, were soon repaired, and they
+continued to render efficient service until the close of the war.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+THE PLOT OF PONTIAC
+
+How Detroit was Saved in 1763
+
+
+The long contest between England and France for the right to rule over
+North America, which lasted seventy years, and inflicted untold misery
+upon the hapless settlers on the English frontier, was at last brought
+to an end. England was victorious, and in 1763 a treaty was made by
+which France gave up Canada and all her Western posts.
+
+With the exception of the Six Nations, the Indian tribes had fought on
+the side of the French, whose kind and generous course had won their
+affection. But the claims to the country which they and their
+forefathers had always possessed were utterly disregarded by both
+parties. Said an old chief on one occasion:
+
+"The French claim all the land on one side of the Ohio, and the English
+claim all the land on the other side. Where, then, are the lands of the
+Indian?"
+
+The final overthrow of the French left the Indians to contend alone with
+the English, who were steadily pushing them towards the setting sun.
+Seeing this, and wishing to rid his country of the hated pale-faces, who
+had driven the red men from their homes, Pontiac, the great leader of
+the Ottawas, determined--to use his own words--"to drive the dogs in red
+clothing" (the English soldiers) "into the sea."
+
+This renowned warrior, who had led the Ottawas at the defeat of General
+Braddock, was courageous, intelligent, and eloquent, and was unmatched
+for craftiness. Besides the kindred tribes of Ojibways, or Chippewas,
+and Pottawattomies, whose villages were with his own in the immediate
+vicinity of Detroit, a number of other warlike tribes agreed to join in
+the plot to overthrow the English. Pontiac refused to believe that the
+French had given up the contest, and relied upon their assistance also
+for the success of his plan.
+
+All the English forts and garrisons beyond the Alleghanies were to be
+destroyed on a given day, and the defenceless frontier settlements were
+also to be swept away.
+
+The capture of Detroit was to be the task of Pontiac himself. This
+terrible plot came very near succeeding. Nine of the twelve military
+posts on the exposed frontier were taken, and most of their defenders
+slaughtered, and the outlying settlements of Pennsylvania and Virginia
+were mercilessly destroyed.
+
+On the evening of May 6, 1763, Major Gladwin, the commander at Detroit,
+received secret information that an attempt would be made next day to
+capture the fort by treachery. The garrison was weak, the defences
+feeble. Fearing an immediate attack, the sentinels were doubled, and an
+anxious watch was kept by Gladwin all that night.
+
+The next morning Pontiac entered the fort with sixty chosen warriors,
+each of whom had concealed beneath his blanket a gun, the barrel of
+which had been cut short. His plan was to demand that a council be held,
+and after delivering his speech to offer a peace belt of wampum. This
+belt was worked on one side with white and on the other side with green
+beads. The reversal of the belt from the white to the green side was to
+be the signal of attack. The plot was well laid, and would probably have
+succeeded had it not been revealed to Gladwin.
+
+The savage throng, plumed and feathered and besmeared with paint to make
+themselves appear as hideous as possible, as their custom is in time of
+war, had no sooner passed the gateway than they saw that their plan had
+failed. Soldiers and employes were all armed and ready for action.
+Pontiac and his warriors, however, moved on, betraying no surprise, and
+entered the council-room, where Gladwin and his officers, all well
+armed, awaited them.
+
+"Why," asked Pontiac, "do I see so many of my father's young men
+standing in the street with their guns?"
+
+"To keep the young men to their duty, and prevent idleness," was the
+reply.
+
+The business of the council then began. Pontiac's speech was bold and
+threatening. As the critical moment approached, and just as he was on
+the point of presenting the belt, and all was breathless expectation,
+Gladwin gave a signal. The drums at the door of the council suddenly
+rolled the charge, the clash of arms was heard, and the officers present
+drew their swords from their scabbards. Pontiac was brave, but this
+decisive proof that his plot was discovered completely disconcerted him.
+He delivered the belt in the usual manner, and without giving the
+expected signal.
+
+Stepping forward, Gladwin then drew the chief's blanket aside, and
+disclosed the proof of his treachery. The council then broke up. The
+gates of the fort were again thrown open, and the baffled savages were
+permitted to depart.
+
+Stratagem having failed, an open attack soon followed, but with no
+better success. For months Pontiac tried every method in his power to
+capture the fort, but as the hunting-season approached, the disheartened
+Indians gradually went away, and he was compelled to give up the
+attempt.
+
+In the campaign that followed, two armies were marched from different
+points into the heart of the Indian country. Colonel Bradstreet, on the
+north, passed up the lakes, and penetrated the region beyond Detroit,
+while on the south Colonel Bouquet advanced from Fort Pitt into the
+Delaware and Shawnee settlements of the Ohio Valley. The Indians were
+completely overawed. Bouquet compelled them to sue for peace, and to
+restore all the captives that had been taken from time to time during
+their wars with the whites.
+
+The return of these captives, many of whom were supposed to be dead, and
+the reunion of husbands and wives, parents and children, and brothers
+and sisters, presented a scene of thrilling interest. Some were
+overjoyed at regaining their lost ones; others were heartbroken on
+learning the sad fate of those dear to them. What a pang pierced that
+mother's breast who recognized her child only to find it clinging the
+more closely to its Indian mother, her own claims wholly forgotten!
+
+Some of the children had lost all recollection of their former home, and
+screamed and resisted when handed over to their relatives. Some of the
+young women had married Indian husbands, and, with their children, were
+unwilling to return to the settlements. Indeed, several of them had
+become so strongly attached to their Indian homes and mode of life that
+after returning to their homes they made their escape and returned to
+their husbands' wigwams.
+
+Even the Indians, who are educated to repress all outward signs of
+emotion, could not wholly conceal their sorrow at parting with their
+adopted relatives and friends. Cruel as the Indian is in his warfare, to
+his captives who have been adopted into his tribe he is uniformly kind,
+making no distinction between them and those of his own race. To those
+now restored they offered furs and choice articles of food, and even
+begged leave to follow the army home, that they might hunt for the
+captives, and supply them with better food than that furnished to the
+soldiers. Indian women filled the camp with their wailing and
+lamentation both night and day.
+
+One old woman sought her daughter, who had been carried off nine years
+before. She discovered her, but the girl, who had almost forgotten her
+native tongue, did not recognize her, and the mother bitterly complained
+that the child she had so often sung to sleep had forgotten her in her
+old age. Bouquet, whose humane instincts had been deeply touched by this
+scene, suggested an experiment. "Sing the song you used to sing to her
+when a child," said he. The mother sang. The girl's attention was
+instantly fixed. A flood of tears proclaimed the awakened memories, and
+the long-lost child was restored to the mother's arms.
+
+
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+STRANGE STORIES FROM HISTORY
+
+
+Each Post 8vo, Illustrated, with Introduction, 60 cents.
+
+AMERICAN HISTORICAL FICTION FOR BOYS AND GIRLS
+
+These books tell thrilling stories of the personal life and heroic deeds
+of Americans in the great struggles of Colonial times, the Revolution,
+1812, and 1861, which have welded together and built up the American
+nation. They are full of a close human interest and a dramatic quality
+which cannot be imparted in compact histories, although these tales are
+usually founded upon actual historical events. They enlist and hold the
+attention of readers, and they also clear the historical perspective and
+convey lessons in courage and patriotism. Mr. George Cary Eggleston's
+successful "Strange Stories from History" deals in part with heroes of
+other nations, but these books, while similar to that in many respects,
+tell of those whose gallant deeds gave us the America of to-day.
+
+The following are the titles:
+
+  STRANGE STORIES OF COLONIAL DAYS. By Francis Sterne Palmer,
+    Hezekiah Butterworth, Francis S. Drake, G. T. Ferris, Rowan
+    Stevens, and others.
+
+  STRANGE STORIES OF THE REVOLUTION. By Molly Elliot Seawell,
+    Howard Pyle, Winthrop Packard, Percival Ridsdale, and others.
+
+  STRANGE STORIES OF 1812. By W. J. Henderson, James Barnes, S.
+    G. W. Benjamin, Francis Sterne Palmer, and others.
+
+  STRANGE STORIES OF THE CIVIL WAR. By Robert Shackleton, W. J.
+    Henderson, Capt. Howard Patterson, U.S.N., L. E. Chittenden,
+    Gen. G. A. Forsyth, U.S.A., and others.
+
+
+
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Transcriber's Note:
+
+
+Minor punctuation errors (e.g. periods instead of commas) have been
+corrected without note. Inconsistent hyphenation and capitalization have
+not been corrected.
+
+Illustrations have been moved to directly after the corresponding
+paragraph. An advertisement has been removed from the beginning of the
+book, as there is an identical one at the end, and a duplicate title
+page has been removed from between the introduction and the beginning of
+Chapter I.
+
+Decorative italics (e.g. on chapter subtitles) have not been represented
+in the plain-text versions of this book.
+
+The following corrections were made to the text:
+
+p. 32: extra hyphen removed (Tommy-Five-Canoes to Tommy Five-Canoes)
+
+p. 152: Jar to Jaar (_Nieuw Jaar_)
+
+p. 159: He to he (he seized a silver bowl)
+
+p. 165: thout to thou (canst thou not me trust)
+
+p. 166: missing close quote added ("There was no fun in calling on a
+parcel of old _vrouws_,")
+
+p. 174: extra close quote removed (lash of the slave-whip.)
+
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Strange Stories of Colonial Days, by Various
+
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