Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1889-12-20

Point where tho French had q strong place
in the woods, upon Lake Champlain. But to
have done this directly were too perilous, and
1t was accordingly gone upon by such laby-
rinth of rivers, lakes and portages as makes
my head giddy to remember. These paths
were in ordinary times entirely desert, but
the country was now up, the tribes on the
warpath, the woods full of Indian scouts.
Again and again we came upon these parties
when we least expected them, and one day,
in particular, l sholl never forget; how, as
dawn was coming in, we were suddenly sur
rounded by five or six of these painted devils.
uttering very dreary sort of cry and brand.
ishing their hatchets. 1t passed Off harm
lessly indeed, as did the rest of our encounters,
for Chew was well known and highly valued
among tho different tribes.
We were come to the most critical norton
OF our course, where we might equally ex-
pect to fall into the hands Of French or
English, when terrible calamity befell u.s.
Chew was taken suddenly sick with symp-
toms like those of poison, and in the course Of
few hours expired in the bottom of the
canoe We thus lost at once our guide. our
interpreter, our boatman and our passport.
for he was all these in one, and found our
selves reduced, at q blow, to the most des-
perate and irremediable distress Chew. who
took great pride in his knowledge, had in
deed often lectured us on tho geography, and
Ballantrae, believe, would listen But for
my part have always found such Informal
ton highly tedious; and beyond the fact that
we were now in the country of the Adiron-
dack Indians, and not so distant from our
destination could we but nave found the
way, was entirely ignorant. The wisdom
of my course was soon the more apparent,
for with all his pains, Balantrae was no
further advanced than myself
lie knew we must continue to go up one
stream; then, by way of a portage, down
another; and then up third. But YOU are
to consider, in q mountain country, how
many streams come rolling in from every
hand And how is a gentleman, who is a
perfect stranger in that part of the world to
tell any one of them from any otherl Nor
was this our only trouble We were great
novices, besides, in handling a canoe; the
portages were almost beyond orr strength,
SO that have seen us sit down in despair for
half an hour al n time without one word and
the appearance of q single Indian, since we
had now no means of speaking to them
would have been in all probability the means
OF our destruction. There is altogether some
excuse il Ballantrae showed something of a
glooming disposition; his habit of imputing
blame to Others quite capable as himself,
was less tolerable, and his language it was
not always easy to accept Indeed, he had
contracted on board the pirate shipa manner
OF address which was in high degree unusual
between gentlemen; and now, when you
might say he was in fever, it increased
upon him hugely.
The third day of these wanderings, as we
were carrying the canoe upon rocky port
age, she fell and was entirely bilged. The
portage was between two lakes both pretty
extensive; the track, such rs it was, opened
at both ends upon the water, and on both
hands was inclosed by the unbroken woods,
and the sides of the lakes were quite impassa-
bic with bog, so that we beheld ourselves not
only condemned to go without our boat and
the greater part of our provisions, but to
plunge Mt once into impenctrable thickets and
to desert what little guidance We still had
the course of the river. Each stuck his pis-
tolls in his belt, shouldered an ak, made a
pack Of his treasure and as much food as he
could stagger under, and deSerting the rest
of our possessions, even TO our swords, which
would have much embarrassed us among the
woods, We set forth on this deplorable adj
venture. The labors of Hercules, so finely
described by Homer, were a trile to what
we now underwent.
Some parts of the forest were perfectly
dense down to the ground, so that we must
cut our way ike mites in cheese In some
the bottom was full Of deep swamp, and the
whole wood entirely rotten | have leaped
on great fallen log and sunk to the knees
In touchwood; have sought to stay myself,
III falling, against what looked to be a solid
trunk, and the whole thing has whitfield away
at my touch like sheet of paper. Stun
bling, falling, begging to the knees, hewing
our way, our eyes almost put out with twigs
and branches, our clothes plucked from OR
bodies, we labored all day, and it is doubtful
ii we made two miles. What was worse, as
we could rarely get a view of the country and
were perpetually jostled from our path by
obstacles, it was impossible even to have a
guess in what direction we were moving.
Ballantrae often decided on our course by
the spinning Of a coin, and once when | ex-
poStulated on this childishneSs, he had an odd
remark that have never forgotten II know
no better way" said he, 40 express nv scorn |
Of human reason" | think it was the third
day that we found the body of a Christian,
Scalped and most abominably mangled, and
lying IN pudder of his blood, the birds of
the desert screaming over him, as thick
as hles. l cannot describe how dread !
fully this sight affected us, but it robbed
me OF all strength and all hope for this world.
The same day, and only little after, we
were scrambhng over part of the forest that |
had been burned, when Ballantrae. who was
little ahead, ducked suddenly behind
fallen trunk. l joined him in this shelter,
whence we could look abroad without being
seen ourselves; and in the bottom of the next |
"a l.hp lnr