Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1888-05-31
AT WAR WITH TIE ESQUlMAUX.
Description of a Battle the Sasueaay
Between Two Northern Tribes.

eve went into it ], 900 warriors or a
side, and in either army were twenty
chiefs of fame. We fought the fight at
| Mamelons, where at sunset we met the
| EsquimauX coming up as we were 60
| ing down. The Montaignais headed
| the war The mountaineers, whose faith
ers' wigwams stood at Mamelons, had
| fought the Esquimaux 1000 years. and
both had wrongs to right. My father
died that summer, and I, fresh from the
fields of France, headed my tribe. You
| know how small it was, the last rem
nant of the old Lenape root, but every
man a warrior. / knew not the right
or wrong of it, nor did I care. only
knew our tribe was pledged to the Mas
quapees of frozen Ungava, and they
were allies of the MOuntaineerS, and
| hence the fight held US toits edge. That
night we slept under truce, but when
| the sun came up went at it. l see that
morning now. The sun from out the
| eastern sea rose red as blood. The Mas
quapees, who lived as atheists without
a medicine man, cared not for this, but
the prophet of the Mountaineers paint
ed his face and body black as night,
tore his blanket into shreds, and lay in
the sand as one dead. The Nasquapees
| laughed, but we of the mountains knew
by that dread sign that our faces look
| ed toward our last battle. We made it
brave doom. We fought till noon up
on the shifting sands, nor gained an
inch, nor did our foes, when suddenly
the sun was clouded and a great wind
arose that drove the sand so thickly
1 hot h 10 hot TI1sinO
| the shouting ceased along the terrace
where we fought, and a great, dread
silence fell on the mighty mounds, save
when the fierce gusts smote them.
Thus, living and dead, friend and foe,
we lay together, our faces plunged into
| the coarse gravel, our hands clutching
the rounded stones, that we might
breathe and stay until the wind might
pass. And such aWind was never blown
| on man before, for it was hot and came
straight down from heaven, so that our
| backs WINGED as we lay flattened. Thus,
mixed and mingled, we chung to the
hot stones, while some crept in beneath
| the dead for shelter. So both wars
clungto the ground for an hours space.
Then, suddenly, the sun rushed out, and
shaking sand from eyes and hair, and
| splitting it from our mouths, at it we
went again.
''In the pauses of the wind we who
| fought on either side heard shrieks and
shouts and tramplings as of ten thous-
and feet, and overUS were roarings and
bellowings and hollow noises, dreadful
to hear, and through all the battle went
| the word that 1.-the old dead were fight
ing toor' and that made US wild. The
dying cheered the living, and the living
| cheered the dead. So went the battle
the fathers and the sons, the dead
and the living, hard at it. The waters
! of the Saguenay, a thousand feet below,
| were beaten into foam by the rush of
| FIGHTING feet and the roaring of great
battle filled it's mouth. Its dark tide
| whitened with strange death froth
| from shore to shore, while ever and
anon its surface shivered and shook.
| And under us on the high crest, cloud
| wrapped, the earth trembled as we
| fought, so that more than once as we
stood clinched, we two, the foe and I,
| still gripped for death, would pause I'M
| til the ground grew steady, for its
| tremblings made us dizzy, then clinch
| the fiercer, mad with a great madness
at being stopped in such death-grapple.
Under US all the long afternoon the
| great mounds rose and sunk like waves
that have no base to stand upon. The
clouds showed ashes. Mud fell in show
| ers. The air we breathed stank with
| birthstone and burned bones. And still
it thickened, and still both sides, now
but scattered few, fought on, until at
| last, with a crash, as if the world had
split apart, darkness deep as death fell
suddenly, so that eyes were vain and
we who were not dead, unable to find
the foe, stood still. And thus the battle
ended, even drawn, because God stop
ped the fight at Mamelons. '"-FrOna
L L.. IL, l. L., al,