Littlepage Manuscripts: Satanstoe, The Chainbearer & The Redskins (Complete Edition). James Fenimore Cooper
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buried Sam, the hunter, when on rising a little hillock, the Indian tossed his arm, the sign that a new discovery was made. This time, however, the gesture was rather made in exultation than in horror. As he came to a dead halt at the same instant, we all closed eagerly up, and got an early view of the cause of this exhibition of feeling.
The ground fell away, in a sort of swell, for some distance in our front; and, the trees being all of the largest size, and totally without underbrush, the place had somewhat of the appearance of a vast, forest edifice, to which the canopy of leaves above formed the roof, and the stems of oaks, lindens, beeches and maples, might be supposed to be the columns that upheld it. Within this wide, gloomy, yet not unpleasant hall, a sombre light prevailed, like that which is cast through the casements of an edifice of the ancient style of architecture, rendering everything mellow and grave. A spring of sweet water gushed from a rock, and near it were seated, in a circle, Mr. Traverse and his two chain-bearers, seemingly taking their morning’s meal; or, rather, reclining after it, with the pail, platters and fragments before them; like men reposing after appeasing their hunger, and passing a few minutes in idle talk. Tom, the second hunter and axe-man, lay asleep, a little apart.
“Here has been even no alarm, thank Got,” said Guert, cheerfully, “and we are in time to let them know their danger. I will give the call; it will sound sweetly to their ears!”
“No call,” said Trackless, quickly; “hollow no good, now. Soon get there, and tell him, in low voice.”
As this was clearly prudent, we pushed forward in a body, taking no pains, however, to conceal our approach, but making somewhat of a measured tread, with our footsteps. A strange sensation came over me, as we advanced, and I found that neither of the surveyors stirred! A suspicion of the dread truth forced itself on my mind; but I can hardly say that the shock was any the less, when, on getting near, we saw by the pallid countenances, fixed, glassy eyes, and fallen jaws, that all our friends were dead. The savage ingenuity of Indians had propped the bodies in reclining positions, and thrown them into attitudes that had a horrible resemblance to the species of indulgence that I have just described.
“Holy Heaven!” exclaimed Guert, dropping the butt of his rifle on the ground; “we are too late!”
No one else spoke. On removing the caps, it was found that each man had been scalped, and that all of those, whom we had left a few days before, proud of their strength and instinct with life, had departed in spirit, soon to be seen no more. Jumper, the other Indian, alone remained to be accounted for. Rifle-balls had been at work here, each of the four having been shot; Mr. Traverse, in no less than three places.
I will confess, that a suspicion of the Oneida crossed my mind, now, for the first time; and I did not scruple to mention it to my companions, as soon as either of us had power to speak, or listen.
“No true,” said Trackless, positively. “Jumper poor Injin—that so—love rum—no rascal, to kill friend. Musohoeenah warrior to do so. Just like him. No; Jumper fool—love rum—no bad Injin.”
Where, then, was Jumper? He alone, of all whom we had left behind us, remained to be found. We made a long search for his body, but without any success. Susquesus examined the trails, and the bodies, and gave it as his opinion that the surveyor and chain-bearers might have been killed about three or four hours; and that the murderers, for such, in our eyes, they who had done the foul deed were to be accounted, had not been away from the place more than twenty minutes, when we arrived. This might well have happened, and we not hear the rifles; as the distance from the hut was several miles; and, two hours before, we must have been not far from the place where we had passed the night. That the attack occurred after daylight, was reasonably certain; and, as Pete was surely seized while alive, some intelligence might have been obtained from him, that directed the savages to the point where the outlying party would probably be expecting him. Nevertheless, this, was pretty much conjecture, and we never knew which victim fell first, or whether the negro was taken at all, near the spot where he was gibbeted. The infernal cruelty of his conquerors may have kept him as a prisoner, for some time before the final catastrophe, and caused them to carry him about with them as a captive, in order to subject the wretch to as much misery as possible, for, as Susquesus said, Muss’ ‘back very sore.’
We buried poor Traverse, and his chain-bearers, near the spring, using one of the same natural hollows in the earth as that in which we had interred the hunter. On a search, it was ascertained that their arms and ammunition had been carried off, and that the pockets of the dead men had been rifled. The American Indian is seldom a thief, in the ordinary sense of the term; but, he treats the property of those whom he slays as his own. In this particular, he does not differ materially from the civilized soldier, I believe, plunder being usually considered as a legitimate benefit of war. The Hurons had laid their hands on the compass and chains, for we could discover neither; but they had left the field-book and notes of Traverse, as things that, to them, were useless. In other respects, the visit of the savages to this fatal spot left the appearance of having been hurried.
On this occasion, Guert made no attempts at morals, or eloquence. The shock had disqualified us all for anything of the sort, and we discharged our duties with the earnest diligence, and grave thoughtfulness, of men who did not know but the next moment might bring themselves into the midst of a scene of deadly strife. We worked hard, and a little hastily, and were soon ready to depart. It was determined, on a hurried consultation, to follow the trail of the Hurons, as the most certain method of surprising them, on the one hand, and of preventing them from surprising us, on the other. The Indian would have no difficulty in pursuing the very obvious trail that was left, and which bore all the proofs of having been left by a dozen men.
The reader, who is unacquainted with the usages of the American savage, is not to suppose that this party had moved through the forest, in a disorderly group, regardless of the nature of the vestiges of their passage left behind them. The native warrior never does that; usually he marches in a line of single files, which has obtained the name of Indian file with us; and, whenever there are strong reasons for concealing his numbers, it is his practice for each succeeding man to follow, as nearly as possible, in the footsteps of the warrior who precedes him; thereby rendering a computation difficult, if not impossible. In this manner our foes had evidently marched; but Susquesus, who had been busy examining the marks around the spring, the whole time we were occupied in burying the dead, gave it as his opinion that our enemies could not number less than a dozen warriors. This was not very pleasing intelligence, since it would render success in a conflict next to hopeless. So, at least, I viewed the matter, though Guert saw things differently. This highly intrepid man could not find it in his heart to abandon the idea of driving foes so ruthless out of the country; and, I do believe, he would have faced a hundred savages at once when we quitted the spring.
The Onondago had no difficulty in following the trail, which led us, at first, for some distance in a line towards Ravensnest, then made a sudden inclination in the direction of the hut. It was probably owing to this circuit, and want of settled purpose in the Hurons, that we did not encounter them on our advance towards the “bloody spring,” as the spot where Traverse was slain has been subsequently called.
It was not long ere we found ourselves quite near our own trail, though, perhaps fortunately for us, we did not actually strike it. Had our movement been discovered, doubtless the enemy would have got into our rear, a position in which Indians are always most formidable. As it was, however, we possessed that great advantage ourselves, and pursued our way with so much the greater confidence, knowing full well that danger was only to be apprehended in our front, the quarter on which all our eyes were fixed.
Although our return-march was swift, it was silent as that of a train of mourners. Mourners we were, indeed, for it was not possible for human hearts to be so obdurate as to feel insensible to the amount of misery that our late companions must have suffered, and to the suddenness of their fates. No one spoke, and Susquesus had never found us so close on his heels as we kept ourselves all that morning. The foot of the file-leader was scarcely out of its place, ere that of his successor covered the same spot!
The trail led us quite close to the hut, which we reached as near as might be to noon. On approaching the cabin, we used the utmost caution lest our enemies