*CHAPTER IX*
*THE WHITE EAGLE OF THE IROQUOIS*
The Indian who had raised his scalping-knife drew back, and a plumed andpainted chieftain stepped forward. It was none other than the renowned"White Eagle"--the greatest chief amongst the Six Nations. The samedaring and unconquered spirit who had made his escape from the frigate,as she lay anchored in the river below Quebec.
"Stay! Let me see the young palefaces, who do not run like the hares,"he commanded.
As he bent over the prostrate youths, he was unable to restrain aslight, involuntary start. A sudden gleam of remembrance flashed acrosshis countenance, and chased away for an instant the ferocity of thesavage. He recognised in them the young prisoners who, aboard the_Sapphire_, had dared to offer him a drink of water at the risk oflosing their own promised liberty.
Then, in a loud voice which all could hear, he uttered those words,which caused Jack to open his eyes for an instant--
"Stay! He is the paleface brother of the White Eagle."
The braves quickly gathered around him, for they were all astounded atthese words; but he continued--
"These are not the children of the Canadas. They are the friends of thered man, and the children of the Yengeese. They come from the land ofthe sun-rising. They were prisoners with White Eagle, in the big canoewith wings, in the river of Canada, and when the children of the Frenchking treated the Eagle as the squaw of a Delaware, and even offered himthe bitter salt water to drink, the hearts of these children of Miquonburned with pity for the red chief, and they offered him sweet water toquench his thirst, but even that was not permitted by these dogs ofCanada."
"Ugh! The children of the French Father are snakes and cowards. Theyare singing-birds which speak a lie," cried one of the warriors.
"The Algonquins are crows, who fly to their rookeries when they hear thescream of the eagle," cried another.
"Listen!" continued the chief. "The French are women, like theDelawares, and should wear petticoats. They offered gold and fire-waterfor the scalp of an Iroquois chief, but the caged eagle despised theirthreats, and while his captors slept, his proud spirit burst the bars,and his strong wings bore him aloft, back to the hunting-grounds of hisfathers."
Exclamations of pride and assent greeted these words, for the prowessand courage of their leader were recognised by all of them.
"When the White Eagle of his tribe gained his freedom once more, hisheart went back to the Yengeese prisoners who had dared to show him akindness, and he longed to see their faces again, for an Iroquois neverforgets a kindness, though he quickly repays an insult, and now theManitou has sent hither my paleface friends. They are brave, for theydo not run even from my warriors. The white blood shall be washed fromtheir veins, and when their wounds are healed they shall be adopted intomy tribe, for the Great Spirit has said, that between the children ofMiquon and the red man there shall be peace, and the hatchet shall beburied so deeply that none shall ever find it again."
These remarkable words, uttered by the red chief, contained both wisdomand prophecy, though expressed in that flowery and boastful languagewhich has always been a peculiarity of the North American savage.
Quickly, then, medicinal herbs were brought from far and near to healthe boys' wounds, and all the knowledge and skill of the tribe were usedto restore them to life and health. Fortunately their wounds were notserious, and soon they were able to sit up and to walk, and then theylearnt how fortunate they had been. They thanked God in that moment forall His preserving care, and especially that they were led to do thatsimple act of kindness to the great chief aboard the frigate.
In accordance with a peculiar Indian custom, water was then brought fromthe river, and the usual rites of adoption were performed. When thewhite blood had been washed away from their veins, the chief declaredthem to be his brothers and members of his tribe.
They were provided with deer-skin shirts and leggings, embroidered withquills and fine bead work. Indian moccasins were placed upon theirfeet, and belts of wampum around their waists, while the feathers of anewly-killed hawk served as crests or head-gear. Except that theirfaces were a little paler than those of their companions, they mighteasily have been taken for young Indian braves, just entering upon theirfirst war-path.
Then it only remained to find Indian names for them, so they calledJamie "Red Feather," for when they found him his head and face werecovered with blood, as he lay upon the ground, and so they dyed thehawk-feathers that served as his crest a deep crimson. And Jack theycalled the "Black Hawk," for they said, though his face was pale, hisspirit was as fierce, and his eyes as keen, as the bird of prey whoseplumes he bore. So they left his feathers black.
"So now we're both Iroquois braves, Black Hawk!" said Jamie, as soon asthey were left together.
"Yes, and the brothers of White Eagle, too!" laughed his companion.
"Well, I suppose it's a great honour they've conferred upon us, so wemust not grumble."
"The greatest honour that an Indian can confer. And for a time Ishouldn't mind it, at any rate, until we can make our escape to thesettlements of Pennsylvania or Virginia, if it were not for thosehorrible, reeking trophies that our comrades carry at their girdles."
"Ah! the scalps, you mean----"
"Yes. Do you know that I've counted no less than fifteen fresh scalpsamongst them, every one of which was this morning rooted where God hadplaced it."
"Horrible! What can we do?"
"Nothing!"
"Are we the only survivors?"
"Some of the Algonquins escaped, I think, and a few of the Frenchmen,who made for the forest, but none of those who entered the canoe, forthere she is. She was captured and brought back again."
"And Major Ridout?" asked Jamie. "What has become of him? Is he dead,too?"
"I fear so, but all the bodies have been dragged into the forest andhidden. I suppose the chief did that to save us a little pain, for heprobably knows that we are unaccustomed to such a sight."
"I'm glad to hear that, for it shows that he possesses a sense ofdecency and good feeling, although he's such a mighty redskin chief."
"And 'tis certain that he remembers a kindness, too, however small,"said Jack. "And it's my opinion that he's not at all a bad fellow, butas generous as he is brave. He remembered us at once, and we owe him ourlives, and I intend to thank him when I get the chance."
"We owe our lives also to the fact that we stood our ground, when theothers ran away, for if we had taken either to the canoes or the forestthe chief would probably not have come our way, and we should have beenscalped by his braves."
"So once more the path of duty has been the path of safety, as old Dr.Birch was so fond of saying."
"The only pleasant feature, apart from our marvellous escape, that I cansee, is that the Iroquois as a part of the Six Nations are allied withthe English against the French in this war, and they speak of theEnglish king as their Great Father across the water."
During this time the Indians, who had not followed the fugitives intothe forest, had been overhauling the three big canoes which belonged tothe fur-traders, and examining their contents.
They had made a great capture, for the canoes were deeply laden withprovisions, arms, ammunition and trading goods. The first thing thatWhite Eagle did was to pour out all the fire-water into the river, lesthis men should drink it, for he knew what dire consequences would ensueto the whole band if that "devil in solution" were only permitted topass their lips.
That night they camped on the same clearing where the battle had beenfought, but next morning at sunrise they took the captured canoes alongwith their own, and paddled rapidly up-stream towards Lake Ontario. Theyouths were both invited into the chief's canoe, and as their woundswere still painful, they took no part in the paddling, but remainedsitting in the bottom of the canoe, or lying upon the skins which hadbelonged to Major Ridout.
The chief and several of his men spoke
a little broken English, and onespoke the Canadian patois, for he had been a prisoner amongst theAlgonquin tribes for some time, so that they were able to converse alittle during the day.
Towards evening they reached the "Thousand Islands," where the St.Lawrence broadens out into a lake studded with a multitude of islets,just before it leaves Lake Ontario. Here the hand of the greatLandscape Painter seems to have made the "beauty spot" of the world, andour heroes were charmed and even roused to a pitch of enthusiasm, asthey passed one green, verdant, or pine-wooded island after another,while the setting sun, flinging its last ruddy beams upon the trees andthe water, completed the enchanting picture.
"'Tis well to be a red man when the Great Manitou gives His childrensuch hunting and fishing grounds as these," said Jamie to the chief, forhe had been deeply stirred by the beauty that surrounded him.
"The Great Spirit loves His red children," said the chief solemnly. "Hemade for them the fish in the stream, and the deer in the forest; but Hehas forgotten them for a while, for they have displeased Him, and thechildren of the sun-rising have chased them from their hunting-grounds."
Jamie made no reply, for he saw that the chief's heart was not a littlesad, for they were approaching Fort Frontenac at the entrance of thelake, where the presence of the French behind their wooden palisades wasa constant reminder to the Indians that even the graves and thehunting-grounds of their fathers were defiled by the presence of thepaleface children of the Canadas.
That night they camped on one of the islands, but long before daybreakthey departed and stole swiftly but silently past the fort, and enteredthe broad waters of Lake Ontario. There was just a chance that some ofthe survivors had reached the fort and alarmed the soldiers, but all wasquiet as they paddled quickly by. Count Frontenac, who established thefort, was a clever soldier, but even to this day his name is rememberedwith hatred by the Iroquois for his severity and cruelty.
And now they were entering their own country, for the Iroquois claimedas their homeland all that great tract of country that lies south ofLake Ontario, from the Hudson River and Lake Champlain on the east, awayto the ridges of the Blue Mountains behind Virginia and westward somelittle way beyond the Falls of Niagara, and the eastern shores of LakeErie; but by right of conquest they claimed much more, for they hadconquered all the surrounding tribes, from the river of Canada on theeast, to the southern shores of Lake Michigan on the west, far awaysouthwards to the Ohio Valley.
At the present time, however, the wigwams and lodges of the White Eaglewere pitched on the banks of a small stream that flowed through theforest to the south of the Great Falls.
Though they still thought much of their late comrades, the youths hadnow become more cheerful, and their wounds had nearly healed, thanks tothe kind attention of the Indians. They had even begun to admire thesefierce Iroquois who had adopted them. They were not nearly so bad asthey were described by the French. They were lords of nature, thesechildren of the forest, and had desired nothing more than to be leftalone in their happy hunting-grounds. It was the paleface who had beenthe intruder and the plunderer. At first the red men had welcomed thepalefaces, and received them as brothers, but the baser types of thesettlers, the outcasts and pariahs of the settlements, and especiallythe hated "Rum-carriers," had taken advantage of, and had traded upon,the childishness, the ignorance and the simplicity of the Indians, withthe result that outrage, vengeance and border wars had been the result.The insults of Champlain were never forgotten by the Iroquois. On theother hand the compact made between Miquon (William Penn) and theIndians was never broken by the Delawares, till the white men broke itthemselves.
Several times during their progress along the shores of the lake smokehad been perceived, rising above the tree-tops in the forest. The keeneyes of the chief, who was in the first canoe, never relaxed theirvigilance for a moment, for though they were almost in their owncountry, yet at any hour they might be set upon by a marauding band ofFrench Indians, who were out for scalps.
Each evening they would draw in to the bank, set a watch, by postingscouts some little way into the forest, then, lighting a fire, theywould cook their evening meal. Oftentimes this would consist of a finebuck that had been killed during the day, as they coasted along by theedge of the forest-lined bank, or sometimes of the sturgeon and salmontaken from the lake.
The lads noticed that several times, when smoke had been observed, thatthe chief ordered the boats to make a wide detour, as though to avoid apossible enemy. At other times the boats would pass close in as thoughthere were no danger. Jamie was determined to find out the reason ofthis, so the next time that he saw a faint column of blue smoke heremarked to the chief--
"Look, White Eagle! There's more smoke ahead!"
But the chief, who had seen it long before, merely remarked--
"Iroquois smoke!"
How he could tell the difference between one smoke and another the ladscould never make out, for he seemed unable to explain it to them; butthat he did know, and could often tell something of the people who fedthe fire by the tell-tale column of smoke, they never doubted.
Once, as the White Eagle looked long and keenly at a very faint columnof blue smoke, about half-a-mile inland, Jamie thought that for aninstant he could trace a somewhat puzzled and anxious look clouding theface of the chief; but it passed as quickly as it came, and the faintestpromise of a smile spread over his countenance, as though the smokerecalled pleasant memories.
"Is that Iroquois smoke, too, chief?" he asked.
"No Iroquois smoke this time," he replied
"Can it be an enemy, then?"
"No enemy."
"Then who can he be who has lit that fire?"
"Paleface!" ejaculated the chief.