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Page 39
CHAPTER VIII.
THE INDIANS AND THEIR PRISONERS.
While the events just chronicled were enacting in one part of the
country, others, of a different nature, but somewhat connected with
them, were taking place in another. In a dark, lonely pass or gorge of
the hills, some ten miles to the north of the scene of the preceding
chapter, where the surrounding trees grew so thick with branches and
leaves that they almost entirely excluded the sunlight from the waters
of a stream which there rolled foaming and roaring between the hills and
over and against the rocks of its precipitous bed, or, plunging down
some frightful precipice, lay as if stunned or exhausted by the fall in
the chasm below, mirroring in its still bosom with a gloomy reflection
the craggy steeps rising majestically above it--in this dark and lonely
pass, we say, was a party of human beings, to whom the proper
development of our story now calls us.
The company in question was composed of eight persons, five of whom were
Indians of the Seneca tribe;[5] the others--a thin-faced, gaunt,
stoop-shouldered man past the middle age--a rather corpulent, masculine
looking woman, a few years his junior--a little fair-haired, blue-eyed,
pretty-faced girl of six--were white captives. Four of the Indians were
seated or partly reclining on the ground, with their guns beside them,
ready for instant use if necessary, engaged in roasting slices of deer
meat before a fire that had been kindled for the purpose. The fifth
savage was pacing to and fro, with his rifle on his arm, performing the
double duty of sentinel and guard over the prisoners, who were kept in
durance by strong cords some ten paces distant. The old man was secured
by a stick passing across his back horizontally, to which both wrists
and arms were tightly bound with thongs of deer skin. To prevent the
possibility of escape, both legs were fastened together by the same
material, and a long, stout rope, encircling his neck, was attached to
a tree hard by. This latter precaution, and much of the former, seemed
unnecessary; for there was a mild look of resigned dejection on his
features, as they bent toward the earth, with his chin resting on his
bosom, that appeared strongly at variance with any thing like flight or
strife. His female companion was fastened in like manner to the tree,
but in other respects only bound by a stout thong around the wrists in
front. The third member of the white party, the little girl, was seated
at the feet of the old man, with her small wrists also bound until they
had swollen so as to pain her, looking up from time to time into his
face with a heart-rending expression of grief, fear and anxiety.
Of the Indians themselves, we presume it would be difficult to find,
among all the tribes of America, five more blood-thirsty, villainous
looking beings than the ones in question. They were only partially
dressed, after the manner of their tribe, with skins around their loins,
extending down to their knees, and moccasins on their feet, leaving the
rest of their bodies and limbs bare. Around their waists were belts, for
the tomahawk and scalping knife, at three of which now hung freshly
taken scalps. Their faces had been hideously painted for the war-path;
but heat and perspiration had since out done the artist, by running the
composition into streaks, in such a way as to give them the most
diabolical appearance imaginable. On each of their heads was a tuft of
feathers, some of which had the appearance of having recently been
scorched and blackened by fire, while their arms and bodies were here
and there besmeared with blood.
The four around the fire were in high glee, as they roasted and
devoured their meat, judging from their nods, and grins, and grunts
of approbation, whenever their eyes glanced in the direction of their
prisoners--the effect of which was far from consoling to the matron of
the latter; who, having eyed them for some time in indignant silence,
at length burst forth with angry vehemence:
"Well, now, jest grin, and jabber, and grin, like a pesky set o' natural
born monkeys, that's ten times better nor you is any day of your good
for nothing, sneaking lives. Goodness, gracious, marsy on me alive!"
continued the dame, whom the reader has doubtless recognized as Mrs.
Younker; "I only jest wish you had to change places with me and Ben here
for about five minutes; and ef I didn't make your old daubed, nasty,
villainous, unyarthly looking faces grin to another tune, I hope I may
never be blessed with liberty agin in creation, as long as I live on the
face o' this univarsal yarth!"
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