 Here begins the Pathfinder. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina. The Pathfinder, or the Inland Sea, by James Fenimore Cooper. Preface. The plan of this tale suggested itself to the writer many years since, though the details are altogether a recent invention. The idea of associating seamen and savages in incidents that might be supposed, characteristic of the Great Lakes, having been mentioned to a publisher, the latter obtained something like a pledge from the author to carry out the design at some future day, which pledge is now tardily and imperfectly redeemed. The reader may recognize an old friend under new circumstances and the principal character of this legend. If the exhibition made of this old acquaintance, in the novel circumstances in which he now appears, should be found not to lessen his favor with the public, it will be a source of extreme gratification to the writer, since he has an interest in the individual in question that falls little short of reality. It is not an easy task, however, to introduce the same character in four separate works, and to maintain the peculiarities that are indispensable to identity, without incurring a risk of fatiguing the reader with sameness, and the present experiment has been so long delayed quite as much from doubts of its success as from any other cause. In this, as in every other undertaking, it must be the end that will crown the work. The Indian character has so little variety that it has been my object to avoid dwelling on it too much on the present occasion. Its association with the sailor, too, it is feared, will be found to have more novelty than interest. It may strike the novice as an anachronism to place vessels on the Ontario in the middle of the eighteenth century, but in this particular, facts will fully bear out all the license of the fiction. Although the precise vessels mentioned in these pages may never have existed on that water or anywhere else, others so nearly resembling them are known to have navigated that inland sea even at a period much earlier than the one just mentioned, as to form a sufficient authority for their introduction into a work of fiction. It is a fact not generally remembered, however well known it may be, that there are isolated spots along the line of the Great Lakes that date as settlements as far back as many the older American towns, and which were the seats of a species of civilization long before the greater portion of even the older states was rescued from the wilderness. Ontario in our own times has been the scene of important naval evolutions. Fleets have maneuvered on those waters which, half a century ago, were as deserted as waters well can be, and the day is not distant when the whole of that vast range of lakes will become the seat of empire and fraught with all the interests of human society. Even though it be in a work of fiction, of what that vast region so lately was, may help to make up the sum of knowledge by which alone a just appreciation can be formed of the wonderful means by which Providence is clearing the way for the advancement of civilization across the whole American continent. THE SUBLIMITY CONNECTED WITH VASTNESS IS FAMILIAR TO EVERY EYE. THE MOST ABSTRUCT, THE MOST FAR-REACHING, PERHAPS THE MOST CHASENED OF THE POET'S THOUGHTS. CROWD ON THE IMAGINATION AS THE EYE OF THE PEOPLE. THE TURF SHALL BE MY FRACRANT SHRIEIN, MY TEMPLE-LORD, THAT ARCH OF THINE, MY CENSORS BREATH THE MOUNTAINAIRS, AND SILENT THOUGHTS, MY ONLY PRAYERS. VERSE ATTRIBUTED TO MORE. THE SUBLIMITY CONNECTED WITH VASTNESS IS FAMILIAR TO EVERY EYE. THE EXPANSE OF THE OCEAN IS SELDOM SEEN BY THE NAVIS WITHIN DIFFERENCE. AND THE MIND, EVEN IN THE OBSCURITY OF NIGHT, FINDS A PARALEL TO THAT GRANDEUR, WHICH SEEMS INSEPARBLE FROM IMAGES THAT THE CENSORS CANNOT COMPASS. WITH FEELINGS ACQUINED TO THIS ADMIRATION AND AWW, THE OFFSPRING OF SUBLIMITY, WERE THE DIFFERENT CHARACTERS OF THE OCEAN AND THE OCEAN AND THE OCEAN INCREASES WITH WHICH THE ACTION OF THIS TAIL MUST OPEN, Gazing on the scene before them. Four persons in all, two of each sex, they had managed to ascend a pile of trees that had been up-torn by a tempest to catch a view of the objects that surrounded them. It is still the practice of the country to call these spots, windrows. By letting in the light of heaven upon the dark and damp recesses of the wood they a sort of oasis in the solemn obscurity of the virgin forests of America. The particular wind-row of which we are riding lay on the brow of a gentle eclivity, and, though small, it had opened the way for an extensive view to those who might occupy its upper margin, a rare occurrence to the traveller in the woods. Philosophy has not yet determined the nature of the power that so often lays desolate spots of this description. I'm ascribing it to the whirlwinds which produce waterspouts on the ocean, while others again impute it to sudden and violent passages of streams of the electric fluid, but the effects in the woods are familiar to all. On the upper margin of the opening the viewless influence had piled tree on tree, in such a manner has had not only enabled the two males of the party to ascend to an elevation of some thirty feet above the level of the earth, but with a little care and encouragement to induce their more timid companions to accompany them. The vast trunks which had been broken and driven by the force of the gust lay blended like jack straws, while their branches, still exhaling the fragrance of withering leaves, were interlaced in a manner to afford sufficient support to the hands. One tree had been completely uprooted, and its lower end, filled with earth, had been cast uppermost, in a way to supply a sort of staging for the four adventurers when they had gained the desired distance from the ground. The reader is to anticipate none of the appliances of people of condition in the description of the personal appearances of the group in question. They were all wayfarers in the wilderness, and had they not been, neither their previous habits nor their actual social positions, would have accustomed them to many of the luxuries of rank. Two of the party, indeed, a male and female, belonged to the native owners of the soil, being Indians of the well-known tribe of the Tuscaroras, while their companions were a man who bore about him the peculiarities of one who had passed his days on the ocean, and was, too, in a station little, if any, above that of a common mariner, and his female associate, who was a maiden of a class and no great degree superior to his own, though her youth, sweetness and countenance, and a modest but spirited mean, lent that character of intellect and refinement which adds so much to the charm of beauty in the sex. On the present occasion her full blue eye reflected the feeling of sublimity that the scene excited, and her pleasant face was beaming with the pensive expression with which all deep emotions, even though they bring the most grateful pleasure, shadow the countenances of the ingenuous and thoughtful. And truly the scene was of a nature deeply to impress the imagination of the beholder. Towards the west, in which direction the faces of the party were turned, the eye ranged over an ocean of leaves, glorious and rich in the varied and lively verdure of a generous vegetation, and shaded by the luxuriant tints which belonged to the forty-second degree of latitude. The elm with its graceful and weeping top, the rich varieties of the maple, most of the noble oaks of the American forest, with a broad-leaved linden known in the parlance of the country as the basswood, mingled their uppermost branches, forming one broad and seemingly interminable carpet of foliage which stretched away towards the setting sun, until it bounded the horizon by blending with the clouds, as the waves and the sky meet at the base of the vault of heaven. Here and there by some accident of the tempests, or by a caprice of nature, a trifling opening amid these giant members of the forest permitted an inferior tree to struggle upward toward the light, and to lift its modest head nearly to a level with the surrounding surface of verdure. Of this class were the birch, a tree of some account in regions less favored, the quivering aspen, various generous nutwoods, and divers others which resembled the ignoble and vulgar, thrown by circumstances into the presence of the stately and great. Here and there, too, the tall, straight trunk of the pine pierced the vast field, rising high above it, like some grand monument reared by art on a plain of leaves. It was the vastness of the view, the nearly unbroken surface of verdure that contained the principle of grandeur. The beauty was to be traced in the delicate tints, relief by graduations of light and shade, while the solemn repose induced the feeling allied to awe. Uncle said the wandering but pleased girl, addressing her male companion, whose arms she rather touched than leaned upon, to steady her own light but firm footing. This is like a view of the ocean you so much love. So much for ignorance than a girl's fancy magnet, a term of affection the sailor often used in allusion to his niece's personal attractions. No one but a child would think of likening this handful of leaves to a look at the real Atlantic. You might seize all these treetops to Neptune's jacket, and they would make no more than a nose-gave for his bosom. More fanciful than true, I think, Uncle, look thither. It must be miles on miles, and yet we see nothing but leaves. What could one behold if looking at the ocean? More, returned the Uncle, giving an impatient gesture with the elbow the other touched, for his arms were crossed and the hands were thrust into the bosom of a vest of red cloth, a fashion of the times. More, magnet, say rather what less. Where are your combing seas, your blue water, your rollers, your breakers, your whales, or your water-spouts, and your endless motion in this bit of a forest, child? And where are your treetops, your solemn silence, your fragrant leaves, and your beautiful green, Uncle, on the ocean? Touch, magnet, if you understood the thing you would know that green water is a sailor's bane. He scarcely relishes a greenhorn less. But green trees are a different thing. Yes. That sound is the air breathing among the leaves. You should hear a norwester breathe, girl, if you fancy wind aloft. Now where are your gales and hurricanes and trades and levantors and such like incidents in this bit of a forest? And what fishes have you swimming beneath yon tame surface? That there have been tempest here, these signs around us plainly show, and beasts, if not fishes, are beneath those leaves. I do not know that, return the uncle with the sailor's dogmatism. They told us many stories at Albany of the wild animals we should fall in with, and yet we have seen nothing to frighten a seal. I doubt if any of your inland animals will compare with a low latitude shark. See? exclaimed the niece who is more occupied with the sublimity and beauty of the boundless wood than with her uncle's arguments. Yonder is a smoke curling over the tops of the trees. Can it come from a house? I? I? There is a look of humanity in that smoke. Return the old seaman. Which is worth a thousand trees. I must show it to Arrowhead, who may be running past a port without knowing it. It is probable there is a caboose where there is a smoke. As he concluded the uncle drew a hand from his bosom, touched the male Indian who was standing near him, lightly on the shoulder, and pointed out a thin line of vapor which was stealing slowly out of the wilderness of leaves, at a distance of about a mile, and was diffusing itself in almost imperceptible threads of humidity in the quivering atmosphere. The Tuscarora was one of those noble-looking warriors oftener met with, among the aborigines of this continent, a century since than today, and while he had mingled sufficiently with a colonist to be familiar with their habits and even with their language, he had lost little, if any, of the wild grandeur and simple dignity of a chief. Between him and the old seaman the intercourse had been friendly, but distant, for the Indian had been too much accustomed to mingle with the officers of the different military posts he had frequented not to understand that his present companion was only a subordinate. So imposing indeed had been the quiet superiority of the Tuscaroras reserve that Charles Cap, for so was the seaman named, in his most dogmatical or facetious moments, had not ventured on familiarity in an intercourse which had now lasted more than a week. The sight of the curling smoke, however, had struck the latter like the sudden appearance of a sail at sea, and for the first time since they met he ventured to touch the warrior as has been related. The quick eye of the Tuscarora instantly caught a sight of the smoke, and for full a minute he stood, slightly raised on tiptoe, with distended nostrils, like the buck that scents a taint in the air, and a gaze as riveted as that of the trained pointer while he waits his master's aim. Then falling back on his feet, a low exclamation in the soft tones that form so singular a contrast to the harsher cries in the Indian warrior's voice, was barely audible, otherwise he was undisturbed. His countenance was calm, and his quick, dark, eagle eye moved over the leafy panorama as if to take in at a glance every circumstance that might enlighten his mind. That the long journey they had attempted to make through a broad belt of wilderness was necessarily attended with danger, both uncle and niece well knew, though neither could at once determine whether the sign that others were in their vicinity was the harbinger of good or evil. There must be a knight as or Tuscarora's nearest arrowhead, said Cap, addressing his Indian companion by his conventional English name. Will it not be well to join company with them and get a comfortable berth for the night in their wigwam? No wigwam there. Arrowhead returned in his unmoved manner. Too much tree. But Indians must be there. Perhaps some old messmates of your own, Master Arrowhead. No Tuscarora. No Oneida. No Mohawk. Pale face fire. The devil it is. Well, Magnet, this surpasses a seaman's philosophy. We old sea-dogs can tell a lover's nest from a mate's hammock, but I do not think the oldest admiral in his Majesty's fleet can tell a king's smoke from a collier's. The idea that human beings were in their vicinity in that ocean of wilderness had deepened the flush on the blooming cheek and brightened the eye of the fair creature at his side, but she soon turned with a look of surprise to her relative and said hesitatingly, for both had often admired the Tuscarora's knowledge, or, we might almost say, instinct. A pale face is fire. Holy uncle, he cannot know that. Ten days since, child, I would have sworn to it, but now I hardly know what to believe. May I take the liberty of asking, Arrowhead, why you fancy that smoke now, a pale face's smoke, and not a red skin's? Wet wood. Returned the warrior, with the calmness with which the pedagogue might point out an arithmetical demonstration to his puzzled pupil. Much wet. Much smoke. Much water. Black smoke. But baking your pardon, Master Arrowhead, the smoke is not black, nor is there much of it. To my eye now it is as light and fanciful as smoke as ever rose from a captain's tea-kettle, when nothing was left to make the fire but a few chips from the dunnage. Too much water. Returned Arrowhead, with a slight nod of the head. It's Garora too cunning to make fire with water. Pale face, too much book. And burn anything. Much book, little no. Well, that's reasonable, I allow, said Cap, who was no devotee of learning. He means that as a hit at your reading-magnet, for the chief has sensible notions of things in his own way. How far now, Arrowhead, do you make us, by your calculation, from the bit of a pond that you call the Great Lake, and towards which we have been so many days shaping our chorus? The Tuscarora looked at the seaman with quiet superiority as he answered, Ontario, like heaven, one son, and the Great Traveller will know it. Well, I have been a Great Traveller, I cannot deny, but of all my voyages this has been the longest, the least profitable, and the farthest inland. If this body of fresh water is so nigh, Arrowhead, and so large, one might think a pair of good eyes would find it out, for apparently everything within thirty miles is to be seen from this lookout. Look, said Arrowhead, stretching an arm before him with quiet grace, Ontario. Uncle, you are accustomed to cry land-ho, but not water-ho, and you do not see it. Cried the niece, laughing, as girls will laugh at their own idle conceits. Now now, Magnet, dost suppose that I shouldn't know my native element if it were in sight? But Ontario is not your native element, dear uncle, for you come from the salt water, while this is fresh. That might make some difference to your young mariner, but none to the old one. I should know water, child, where I do see it in China. Ontario, repeated Arrowhead, with emphasis, again stretching his hand towards the north-west. Cap looked at the Tescarora for the first time since their acquaintance, with something like an air of contempt, though he did not fail to follow the direction of the chief's eye and arm, both of which were directed towards a vacant point in the heavens, a short distance above the plain of leaves. Eye, eye, this is as much as I expected when I left the coast in search of a fresh water pond, resumed Cap shrugging his shoulders like one whose mind was made up and who thought no more need be said. Ontario may be there, or for that matter it may be in my pocket. Well I suppose there will be room enough when we reach it to work our canoe. But Arrowhead, if there be pale faces in our neighborhood, I confess I should like to get within hail of them. The Tescarora now gave a quiet inclination of his head, and the whole party descended from the roots of the uptorn tree in silence. When they reached the ground, Arrowhead intimated his intention to go towards the fire and ascertain who had lighted it, while he advised his wife and the two others to return to a canoe, which they had left in the adjacent stream, and await his return. Why chief this might do on soundings and in an offing where one knew the channel, returned old Cap. But in an unknown region like this I think it unsafe to trust the pilot alone too far from the ship. So with your leave we will not part company. What my brother want? asked the Indian gravely, though without taking offense at a distrust that was sufficiently plain. Your company, Master Arrowhead, and no more, I will go with you and speak these strangers. The Tescarora assented without difficulty, and again he directed his patient and submissive little wife, who seldom turned her full rich black eye on him but to express equally her respect, her dread, and her love, to proceed to the boat. But here Magnet raised a difficulty. Although spirited, and of unusual energy under circumstances of trial, she was but woman, and the idea of being entirely deserted by her two male protectors in the midst of a wilderness that her senses had just told her was seemingly illimitable, became so keenly painful that she expressed a wish to accompany her uncle. The exercise will be a relief, dear sir, after sitting too long in the canoe. She added as the rich blood slowly returned to a cheek that had paled in spite of her efforts to be calm. And there may be females with the strangers. Come, then, child, it is but a cable's length, and we shall return an hour before the sun sets. With this permission the girl, whose real name was Mabel Dunham, prepared to be of the party, while the dew of June, as the wife of Arrowhead was called, passively went her way towards the canoe, too much accustomed to obedience, solitude, and the gloom of the forest to feel apprehension. The three who remained in the wind-row now picked their way around the tangled maze, and gained the margin of the woods. A few glances of the eye sufficed for Arrowhead, but old Cap deliberately set the smoke by a pocket compass, before he trusted himself within the shadows of the trees. This staring by-the-nose magnet may do well enough for an Indian, but your thoroughbred knows the virtue of the needle, said the uncle, as he trudged at the heels of the light-stepping Tuscarora. America would never have been discovered. Take my word for it, if Columbus had been nothing but nostrils. Friend Arrowhead, didst ever see a machine like this? The Indian turned, cast a glance at the compass, which Cap held in a way to direct his course, and gravely answered, A pale-faced eye, the Tuscarora see in his head, the salt water, or so the Indian styled his companion, all eye now, no tongue. He means, uncle, that we had needs be silent. Perhaps he distrusts the persons we are about to meet. I, tis an Indian's fashion of going to quarters. You perceive he has examined the priming of his rifle, and it may be as well if I look to that at my own pistols. Without betraying alarm at these preparations, to which she had become accustomed by her long journey in the wilderness, Mabel followed with a step as elastic as that of the Indian, keeping close in the rear of her companions. For the first half-mile no other caution beyond a rigid silence was observed, but as the party drew nearer to the spot where the fire was known to be, much greater care became necessary. The forest, as usual, had little to intercept the view below the branches, but the tall, straight trunks of trees. Everything belonging to vegetation had struggled towards the light, and beneath the leafy canopy one walked, as it might be, through a vast natural vault upheld by myriads of rustic columns. These columns or trees, however, often served to conceal the adventurer, the hunter, or the foe, and as Arrowhead swiftly approached the spot where his practised and unerring senses told him the strangers ought to be, his footsteps gradually became lighter, his eye more vigilant, and his person was more carefully concealed. "'Sea's salt water,' said he, exalting, pointing through the vista of trees. "'Paleface fire!' "'By the Lord the fellow is right,' muttered Cap. "'There they are, sure enough, and eating their grub as quietly as if they were in the cabin of a three-decker.' "'Arowhead is but half-right,' whispered Mabel, for there are two Indians and only one white man.' "'Palefaces,' said the Tuscarora, holding up two fingers. "'Well,' rejoined Cap, it is hard to say which is right and which is wrong. One is entirely white and a fine comely lad he is, with an air of respectability about him. One is a red-skinned as plain as paint, and nature can make him, but the third chap is half-rigged, being near the brig nor schooner. "'Palefaces,' repeated Arrowhead, again raising two fingers. "'He must be right, uncle, for his eye seems never to fail, but it is now urgent to know whether we meet as friends or foes. They may be French.' "'One hail will soon satisfy us on that head,' returned Cap. "'Stand you behind the tree, Magnet, lest the knaves take it into their heads to fire a broadside without a parley, and I will soon learn what colors they sail under.' The uncle had placed his two hands to his mouth to form a trumpet, and was about to give the promised hail, when a rapid movement from the hand of Arrowhead defeated the intention by deranging the instrument. "'Red man Mohican,' said the Tuscarora. "'Good. Palefaces, yengeese.' "'These are heavenly tidings,' murmured Mabel, who little relished the prospect of a deadly fray in that remote wilderness. Let us approach it once, dear uncle, and proclaim ourselves friends.' "'Good,' said the Tuscarora, red men cool and know. Palefaces hurried and fire. Let the squaw go.' "'What?' said Cap in astonishment. Send little Magnet ahead as a lookout while two lovers like you and me lie to to see what sort of a landfall she will make. If I do I—' "'It is wise, this uncle,' interrupted the generous girl. And I have no fear. No Christian, seeing a woman approach alone, would fire upon her, and my presence would be a pledge of peace. Let me go forward, as Arrowhead wishes, and all will be well. We are as yet unseen, and the surprise of the strangers will not partake of alarm.' "'Good,' returned Arrowhead, who did not conceal his approbation of Mabel's spirit. "'It has an unseeming-like look,' answered Cap. "'But, being in the woods, no one will know it. If you think, Mabel—uncle, I know. There is no cause to fear for me, and you are always nigh to protect me.' "'Well, take one of the pistols, then—' "'Nay, I had better rely on my youth and feebleness,' said the girl, smiling, while her color heightened under her feelings. Among Christian men a woman's best guard is her claim to their protection. I know nothing of arms, and wish to live in ignorance of them.' The uncle desisted, and after receiving a few cautious instructions from the Tuscarora, Mabel rallied all her spirit and advanced alone towards the group seated near the fire. Although the heart of the girl beat quick, her step was firm, and her movements seemingly were without reluctance. A death-like silence reigned in the forest, for they towards whom she approached were too much occupied in appeasing their hunger to avert their looks for an instant from the important business in which they were all engaged. When Mabel, however, had got within a hundred feet of the fire, she trod upon a dried stick, and the trifling noise produced by her light-foot step caused the Mohican, as Arrowhead had pronounced the Indian to be, and his companion, whose character had been thought so equivocal to rise to their feet as quickest thought. Both glanced at the rifles that leaned against a tree, and then each stood without stretching out an arm as his eyes fell on the form of the girl. The Indian uttered a few words to his companion, and resumed his seat and his meal as calmly as if no interruption had occurred. On the contrary, the white man left the fire and came forward to meet Mabel. The latter saw, as the stranger approached, that she was about to be addressed by one of her own color, though his dress was so strange a mixture of the habits of the two races that it required a near look to be certain of the fact. He was of middle age, but there was an open honesty, a total absence of guile in his face which otherwise would not have been thought handsome, that at once assured magnet she was in no danger. Still she paused. Another nothing, young woman, said the hunter, for such his attire would indicate him to be. You have met Christian men in the wilderness, and such as know how to treat all kindly who are disposed to peace and justice. I am a man well known in all these parts, and perhaps one of my names may have reached your ears. By the Frenchers and the Redskins on the other side of the big lakes I am called La Long Carabine. By the Mohicans a just-minded and upright tribe, what is left of them? Hawkeye. While the troops and rangers along this side of the water call me Pathfinder, in as much as I have never been known to miss one end of the trail, when there was a Mingo or a friend who stood in need of me at the other. This was not uttered boastfully, but with the honest confidence of one who well knew that by whatever name others might have heard of him who had no reason to blush at the reports. The effect on Mabel was instantaneous, though the moment she heard the last sobreket she clasped her hands eagerly and repeated the word Pathfinder. So they call me young woman, and many a great Lord has got a title that he did not have so well merit. Though, if truth be said, I rather pride myself in finding my way where there is no path than in finding it where there is. But the regular troops are by no means particular, and half the time they don't know the difference between a trail and a path, though one is a matter for the eye, while the other is little more than sent. Then you are the friend my father promised to send to meet us? If you are Sergeant Dunham's daughter, the great prophet of the Delaware's never uttered more truth. I am Mabel, and yonder hid by the trees are my uncle, whose name is Cap, and a Tuscarora called Arrowhead. We did not hope to meet you until we had nearly reached the shores of the lake. I wish a juster-minded Indian had been your guide, said Pathfinder, for I am no lover of the Tuscaroras who have traveled too far from the graves of their fathers always to remember the great spirit, and Arrowhead is an ambitious chief. Is the dew of June with him? His wife accompanies us, and a humble and mild creature she is. I, and true-hearted, which is more than any who know him, will say of Arrowhead. Well, we must take the fare that Providence bestows while we follow the trail of life. I suppose worse guides might have been found than the Tuscarora, though he has too much mingle-blood for one who consorts altogether with the Delaware's. It is, then, perhaps fortunate we have met, said Mabel. It is not misfortunate at any rate, for I promise the Sergeant I would see his child safe to the garrison, though I died for it. We expected to meet you before you reach the falls, where we have left our own canoe, while we thought it might do no harm to come up a few miles in order to be of service, if wanted. It is lucky we did, for I doubt if Arrowhead be the man to shoot the current. Here comes my uncle and the Tuscarora, and our parties can now join. As Mabel concluded, Cap and Arrowhead, who saw that the conference was amicable, drew nigh, and a few words suffice to let them know as much as the girl herself had learned from the strangers. As soon as this was done, the party proceeded towards the two who still remain near the fire. End of chapter 1. CHAPTER II OF THE PATHFINDER This is the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. This recording is by Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina. The Pathfinder, or the Inland Sea, by James Fenimore Cooper. CHAPTER II. Yea, long as nature's humblest child hath kept her temple undefiled by simple sacrifice, earth's fairest scenes are all his own. He is a monarch, and his throne is built amid the skies. Attributed to Wilson. The Mohican continued to eat, though the second white man rose and courteously took off his cap to Mabel Dunham. He was young, healthful, and manly in appearance, and he wore a dress which, while it was less rigidly professional than that of the uncle, also denoted one accustomed to the water. In that age real semen were a class entirely apart from the rest of mankind, their ideas, ordinary language, and attire, being as strongly indicative of their calling as the opinions, speech, and dress of a Turk, denote a musselon. Although the Pathfinder was scarcely in the prime of life, Mabel had met him with a steadiness that may have been the consequence of having braced her nerves for the interview, but when her eyes encountered those of the young man at the fire, they fell before the gaze of admiration with which she saw, or fancied she saw, he greeted her. Each in truth felt that interest in the other, which similarity of age, condition, mutual comeliness, and their novel situation would be likely to inspire in the young and ingenuous. Here, said Pathfinder, with an honest smile bestowed on Mabel, are the friends your worthy father has sent to meet you. This is a great Delaware, and one who has had honors as well as troubles in his day. He has an Indian name fit for a chief, but as the language is not always easy for the inexperience to pronounce, we naturally turn it into English and call him the Big Sarpent. You are not to suppose, however, that by this name we wish to say that he is treacherous beyond what is lawful and a red-skinned, but that he is wise, and has the cunning which becomes a warrior. Arrowhead there knows what I mean. While the Pathfinder was delivering this address, the two Indians gazed on each other steadily, and the Tuscarora advanced and spoke to the other in an apparently friendly manner. I like to see this, continued Pathfinder. The salutes of two redskins in the woods, Master Cap, are like the hailing of friendly vessels on the ocean. But speaking of water, it reminds me of my young friend, Jasper Western, here, who can claim to know something of these matters, seeing that he has passed his days on Ontario. I am glad to see you, friend," said Cap, giving the young freshwater sailor a cordial grip. Though you must have had something still to learn, considering the school to which you have been sent, this is my niece Mabel. I call her Magnet, for a reason she never dreams of, though you may possibly have education enough to guess at it, having some pretensions to understand the compass, I suppose. The reason is easily comprehended," said the young man, involuntarily fastening his keen dark eye at the same time on the suffused face of the girl. And I feel sure that the sailor who steers by your Magnet will never make a bad landfall. Ha! you do make use of some of the terms I find, and that with propriety, though on the whole I fear you have seen more green than blue water. It is not surprising that we should get some of the phrases which belong to the land, for we are seldom out of sight of it twenty-four hours at a time. More's the pity, boy, more's the pity. A very little land ought to go a great way with a seafaring man. Now, if the truth were known, Master Western, I suppose there is more or less land all round your lake. And uncle, is there not more or less land round the ocean? I'll give Magnet quickly, for she dreaded a premature display of the old seaman's peculiar dogmatism, not to say pedantry. No, child, there is more or less ocean all round the land. That's what I tell the people ashore, youngster. They are living as it might be in the midst of the sea, without knowing it, by sufferance as it were, the water being so much the more powerful and the largest. But there is no end to conceit in this world. For a fellow who never saw salt water, often fancies he knows more than one who has gone round the horn. No, no, this earth is pretty much an island, and all that can be truly said not to be so is water. Young Western had a profound deference for a mariner of the ocean, on which he had often pined to sail, but he had also a natural regard for the broad sheet on which he had passed his life, and which was not without its beauties in his eyes. What you say, sir, he answered modestly, may be true as to the Atlantic, but we have a respect for the land up here on Ontario. That is because you are always landlocked, returned a cap, laughing heartily. Ha! but Yonder is the pathfinder, as they call him, with some smoking platters, inviting us to share in his mess, and I will confess that one gets no venison at sea. Young Western, civility to girls at your time of life, comes as easy as taking in the slack of the ensign halyards, and if you will just keep an eye to her kid and can, while I join the mess of the pathfinder and our Indian friends, I make no doubt she will remember it. Master Cap uttered more than he was aware of at the time. Jasper Westburn did attend to the wants of Mabel, and she long remembered the kind, manly attention of the young sailor at this their first interview. He placed the end of a log for a seat, obtained for her a delicious morsel of the venison, gave her a draft of pure water from the spring, and as he sat near her, fast won his way to her esteem by his gentle but frank manner of manifesting his care, homage that woman always wishes to receive, but which is never so flattering or so agreeable as when it comes from the young to those of their own age, from the manly to the gentle. Like most of those who passed their time, excluded from the society of the softer sex, young Westburn was earnest, sincere, and kind in his attentions, which, though they wanted a conventional refinement, which perhaps Mabel never missed, had those winning qualities that proved very sufficient as substitutes. Leaving these two unsophisticated young people to become acquainted through their feelings, rather than their expressed thoughts, we will turn to the group in which the uncle had already become a principal actor. The party had taken their places around a platter of venison stakes, which served for the common use, and the discourse naturally partook of the characters of the different individuals which composed it. The Indians were silent and industrious, the appetite of the aboriginal American for venison being seemingly inappeasable, while the two white men were communicative, each of the latter being guerrillas and opinionated in his way. But as the dialogue will put the reader in possession of certain facts that may render this exceeding narrative more clear, it will be well to record it. There must be satisfaction in this your life of yours, no doubt, Mr. Pathfinder, continued cap, when the hunger of the travelers was so far appeased that they began to pick and choose among the savory morsels. What is some of the chances and luck that we seem in like, in if ours is all water, yours is all land? Nay, we have water, too, in our journeyings and marches, returned his white companion. We boardermen handle the paddle and the spear almost as much as the rifle and the hunting-knife. Aye, but do you handle the brace and the bowlin, the wheel and the lead-line, the reef-point and the top-rope? The paddle is a good thing, out of doubt, in a canoe but of what use is it in the ship? Nay, I respect all men and their callings, and I can believe the things you mention have their uses. One who has lived, like myself, in company with many tribes, understands differences in usages. The paint of a mingo is not the paint of a Delaware, and he who should expect to see a warrior in the dress of a squaw might be disappointed. I am not yet very old, but I have lived in the woods and have some acquaintance with human nature. I never believe much in the learning of them that dwell in towns, for I never yet met one that had an eye for a rifle or a trail. That's my manner of speaking, Master Pathfinder, to a yarn. Walking about streets, going to church of Sundays and hearing sermons, never yet made a man of a human being. Send the boy out upon the broad ocean, if you wish to open his eyes, and let him look upon foreign nations, or what I call the face of nature, if you wish him to understand his own character. Now there is my brother-in-law, the Sergeant. He is as good a fellow as ever broke a biscuit in his way. But what is he, after all? Why, nothing but a soldier. A Sergeant, to be sure, but that is a sort of a soldier, you know. When he wished to marry poor Bridget, my sister, I told the girl what he was, as in duty bound, and what she might expect from such a husband. But you know how it is with girls when their minds are jammed by an inclination. It is true the Sergeant has risen in his calling, and they say he is an important man at the fort. But his poor wife has not lived to see it all, for she has now been dead these fourteen years. A soldier's calling is honorable, provided he is fit only on the side of right. And as the Frenchers are always wrong, and his sacred majesty and these colonies are always right, I take it the Sergeant has a quiet conscience as well as a good character. I have never slept more sweetly than when I have fit the mingos, though it is the law with me to fight always like a white man and never like an Indian. The Sergeant here has his fashions, and I have mine, and yet have we fit side by side these many years, without either thinking a hard thought concerning the other's ways. I tell him there is but one heaven and one hell, notwithstanding his traditions, though there are many paths to both. That is rational, and he is bound to believe you, though I fancy most of the roads to the last are on dry land. The sea is what my poor sister Bridget used to call a purifying place, and one is out of the way of temptation when out of the side of land. I doubt, if as much can be said in favor of your lakes up here away, that towns and settlements lead to sin, I will allow, but our lakes are bordered by the forests, and one is every day called upon to worship God in such a temple. That man are not always the same, even in the wilderness, I must admit for the difference between a mingo and a Delaware is as plain to be seen as the difference between the sun and the moon. I am glad, friend Cap, that we have met. However, if it be only that you may tell the big serpent here that there are lakes in which the water is salt, we have been pretty much of one mind since our acquaintance began, and if the Mohican has only half the faith in me that I have in him, he believes all that I have told him touching the white man's ways and nature's laws. But it is always seemed to me that none of the Redskins have given as free a belief as an honest man likes to the accounts of the big salt lakes, and to that of there being rivers that flow upstream. This comes of getting things wrong in foremost, answered Cap, with a condescending nod. You have thought of your lakes and rifts as the ship, and of the ocean and the tides as the boat. Neither arrowhead nor the serpent need doubt what you have said concerning both, though I confess myself to some difficulty in swallowing the tale about there being inland seas at all, and still more that there is any sea of fresh water. I have come this long journey as much to satisfy my own eyes concerning these facts as to oblige the sergeant and magnet, though the first was my sister's husband, and I love the last like a child. You are wrong, friend Cap, very wrong, to distrust the power of God in anything, returned Pathfinder earnestly. They that live in the settlements and the towns have confined in unjust opinions concerning the might of his hand, but we, who pass our time in his very presence as it might be, see things differently. I mean such of us as have white natures. A Redskins has his notions, and it is right that it should be so, and if they are not exactly the same as a Christian white man's, there is no harm in it. Still, there are matters which belong all together to the ordering of God's providence, and these salt and fresh water lakes are some of them. I do not pretend to account for these things, but I think at the duty of all to believe in them. Hold on there, Master Pathfinder, interrupted Cap, not without some heat. In the way of a proper and manly faith I will turn my back on no one when afloat. I know more accustomed to make all snug aloft, and to show the proper canvas than to pray when the hurricane comes. I know that we are but helpless mortals at times, and I hope I pay reverence where reverence is due. All I mean to say is this, that, being accustomed to sea water in large bodies salt, I should like to taste it before I can believe it to be fresh. God has given the salt lick to the deer, and he has given to man red skin and white, the delicious spring at which to slake his thirst. It is unreasonable to think that he may not have given lakes of pure water to the west, and lakes of impure water to the east. Cap was odd, in spite of his overweening dogmatism, by the earnest simplicity of the Pathfinder. Though he did not relish the idea of believing a fact which, for many years, he had pertinaciously insisted could not be true. Unwilling to give up the point, and at the same time unable to maintain it against the reasoning to which he was unaccustomed, and which possessed equally the force of truth, faith, and probability, he was glad to get rid of the subject by evasion. Well, well, friend Pathfinder, said he, we will leave the argument where it is, and we can try the water when we once reach it. He marked my words, I do not say that it may not be fresh on the surface. The Atlantic is sometimes fresh on the surface, near the mouths of great rivers. But rely on it. I shall show you a way of tasting the water many fathoms deep, of which you never dreamed, and then we shall know more about it. The guides seemed content to let the matter rest, and the conversation changed. We are not overconceited concerning our gifts. We serve the Pathfinder after a short pause, and well know that such as live in the towns and near the sea, on the sea, interrupted Cap, on the sea, if you wish it, friend, have opportunities which do not befall us of the wilderness. Still we know our own callings, and they are what I consider natural callings, and are not perverted by vanity and wantonness. Now my gifts are with the rifle, and on a trail, and in the way of game and scouting, for though I can use the spear and the paddle, I pride not myself on either. The youth jasper there, who is discoursing with the sergeant's daughter, is a different creature, for he may be said to breathe the water, as it might be, like a fish. The Indians and Frenchers of the North Shore call him O'Doose, on account of his gifts in this particular. He is better at the ore and the rope, too, than in making fires on a trail. There must be something about these gifts of which you speak, after all, said Cap. Now this fire I will acknowledge has overlaid all my seamanship. Arrowhead there said the smoke came from a pale-face's fire, and that is a piece of philosophy which I hold to be equal to steering in a dark night by the edges of the sand. It's no great secret. Returned Pathfinder, laughing with great inward glee, though habitual caution prevented the emission of any noise. Nothing is easier to us who pass our time in the great school of Providence than to learn its lessons. We should be as useless on a trail, or in carrying tidings through the wilderness, as so many woodchucks. Did we not soon come to a knowledge of these niceties? Odus, as we call him, is so fond of the water that he gathered a damp stick or two for our fire, and wet will bring dark smoke, as I suppose even you followers of the sea must know. It's no great secret, though all his mystery to such as doesn't study the Lord and his mighty ways with humility and thankfulness. That must be a keen eye of Arrowhead to see so slight a difference. He would be but a poor Indian if he didn't. No, no, it is wartime, and no red skin is outline without using his senses. Every skin has its own nature, and every nature has its own laws, as well as its own skin. It was many years before I could master all these higher branches of a forest education, for red-skinned knowledge doesn't come as easy to white-skinned nature, as what I suppose is intended to be white-skinned knowledge. So I have but little of the latter, having passed most of my time in the wilderness. You have been a ready scholar, Master Pathfinder, as is seen by your understanding these things so well. I suppose it would be no great matter for a man regularly brought up to the sea to catch these trifles, if he could only bring his mind fairly to bear upon them. I don't know that. The white man has his difficulties in getting red-skinned habits, quite as much as the Indian in getting white-skinned ways. As for the real nature, it is my opinion that neither can actually get that of the other. And yet we sailors who run about the world so much say there is but one nature, whether it be in the Chinaman or a Dutchman. For my own part I am much of that way of thinking, too, for I have generally found that all nations like gold and silver, most men relish tobacco. Then you seafaring men know little of the red-skins. Have you ever known any of your Chinaman who could sing their death songs, with their flesh torn with splinters and cut with knives, the fire raging around their naked bodies, and death staring them in the face? Until you can find me a Chinaman or a Christian man that can do all this, you cannot find a man with a red-skinned nature. Let him look ever so valiant, or know how to read all the books that were ever printed. It is the savages only that play each other such hellish tricks, said Master Cap, glancing his eyes about him uneasily at the apparently endless arches of the forest. No white man has ever condemned to undergo these trials. Nay, therein you are again mistaken. Return the Pathfinder, coolly selecting a delicate morsel of the venison, as his bon-bouche. For though these torments belong only to the red-skinned nature, in the way of bearing them like braves, white-skinned nature may be, and often has been, agonized by them. Happily, said Cap, with an effort to clear his throat, none of his majesty's allies will be likely to attempt such damnable cruelties on any of his majesty's loyal subjects. I have not served much in the Royal Navy, it is true. But I have served, and that is something, and in the way of privateering and worrying the enemy and his ships and cargoes, I've done my full share. But I trust there are no French savages on this side of the lake, and I think you said that Ontario is a broad sheet of water? Nay, it is broad in our eyes. Return Pathfinder, not caring to conceal the smile which lighted a face which had been burnt by exposure to a bright red. Though I must trust that some may think it narrow, and narrow it is, if you wish it to keep off the foe, Ontario has two ends, and the enemy that is afraid to cross it will be certain to come around it. Ah, that comes of your damned freshwater ponds, growled Cap, hemming so loudly as to cause him instantly to repent the indiscretion. No men, now, ever heard of a pirate or a ship getting round one end of the Atlantic. May hap the ocean has no ends? That it hasn't, nor sides nor bottom. The nation which is snugly moored on one of its coasts need fear nothing for the one anchor to beam, let it be ever so savage, unless it possesses the art of shipbuilding. No, no, the people who live on the shores of the Atlantic need fear but little for their skins or their scalps. A man may lie down at night in those regions, in the hopes of finding the hair on his head in the morning, unless he wears a wig. It isn't so here. I don't wish to flurry the young woman, and therefore I will be in no way particular, though she seems pretty much listening to O'Doose, as we call him. But without the education I have received, I should think it at this very moment a risky journey to go over the very ground that lies between us and the garrison in the present state of this frontier. There are about as many Iroquois on this side of Ontario as there are on the other. It is for this very reason, friend Cap, that the sergeant has engaged us to come out and show you the path. What do the Naves dare to cruise so near the guns of one of his majesty's works? Do not the ravens resort near the carcass of the deer, though the fowler is at hand? They come this away, as it might be, naturally. There are more or less whites passing between the forts and the settlements, and they are sure to be on their trails. The serpent has come up one side of the river, and I have come up the other, in order to scout for the outlying rascals, while Jasper brought up the canoe like a bold-hearted sailor as he is. The sergeant told him, with tears in his eyes, all about his child, and how his heart yearned for her, and how gentle and obedient she was, until I think the lad would have dashed into a mingo-capped single-handed rather than not a come. We thank him, and shall think the better of him for his readiness, though I suppose the boy has run no great risk, after all. Only the risk of being shot from a cover as he forced the canoe up a swift rift, or turned an elbow in the stream with his eyes fastened on the eddies. Of all the risky journeys that on an ambushed river is the most risky in my judgment, and that risk has Jasper run. And why the devil has the sergeant sent for me to travel a hundred and fifty miles in this outlandish manner? Give me an offing, and the enemy in sight, and I'll play with him in his own fashion, as long as he pleases, long bows, or close quarters. But be shot like a turtle asleep as not to my humor. If it were not for little magnet there, I would tack-ship this instant, make the best of my way back to York, and let Ontario take care of itself, salt water or fresh water. That wouldn't mend the matter much, friend Mariner, as the road to return is much longer, and almost as bad as the road to go on. Trust to us, and we will carry you through safely, or lose our scalps. Cap wore a tight, solid queue, done up in eelskin, while the top of his head was nearly bald, and he mechanically passed his hand over both, as if to make certain that each was in its right place. He was, at the bottom, however, a brave man, and had often faced death with coolness, though never in the frightful forms in which it presented itself under the brief but graphic picture of his companion. It was too late to retreat, and he determined to put the best face on the matter, though he could not avoid muttering inwardly a few curses on the indiscretion with which his brother-in-law, the sergeant, had led him into his present dilemma. "'I make no doubt, Master Pathfinder,' he answered, when these thoughts had found time to glance through his mind, "'that we shall reach port in safety. What distance may we now be from the fort?' Still more than fifteen miles, and swift miles, too, as the river runs, if the mingos let us go clear. "'And I suppose the woods will stretch along starboard and larbord, as here to fore?' "'Anon?' "'I mean that we shall have to pick our way through these damn trees. "'Nay, nay, you will go in the canoe, and the Oswego has been cleared of its flood-wood by the troops. It will be floating downstream, and that, too, with a swift current. "'And what the devil is to prevent these minks of which you speak from shooting us as we double a headland, or are busy in steering clear of the rocks?' "'The Lord!' "'He who has so often helped others in greater difficulties. Many and many is the time that my head would have been stripped of hair, skin, and all. Hadn't the Lord fit of my side? I never go into a scrimmage,' friend Mariner, without thinking of this great ally, who could do more in battle than all the battalions of the sixtieth, where they brought into a single line. "'I, I, this may do well enough for a scouter, but we seem and like our offing, and to go into action with nothing in our minds but the business before us, plain broadside and broadside work, and no trees or rocks to thicken the water.' "'And no, Lord, too, I dare to say, if the truth were known. Take my word for it, Master Cap, that no battle is the worst fit for having the Lord on your side. Look at the head of the big serpent there. You can see the mark of a knife all along by his left ear. Now nothing but a bullet from this long rifle of mine saved his scalp that day, for it had fairly started, and half a minute more would have left him without the warlock. When the Mohican squeezes my hand and intermates that I befriended him in that matter, I tell him no, it was the Lord who led me to the only spot where execution could be done, or his necessity be made known on account of the smoke. Sarton, when I got the right position, I finished the affair of my own accord. For a friend under the tomahawk is apt to make a man think quick and act at once, as was my case, or the serpent's spirit would be hunting in the happy land of his people at this very moment. Come, come, pathfinder, this palaver is worse than being skinned from stem to stern. We have but a few hours of sun, and it better be drifting down this said current of yours while we may. Magnet, dear, are you not ready to get under way? Magnet started, blushed brightly, and made her preparations for immediate departure. Not a syllable of the discourse just related had she heard, for oh, deuce, as young Jasper was often her called than anything else, had been filling her ears with the description of the yet distant part towards which she was journeying, with accounts of her father, whom she had not seen since a child, and with the manner of life of those who lived in the frontier garrisons. Unconsciously she had become deeply interested, and her thoughts had been too intently directed to these matters to allow any of the less agreeable subjects discussed by those so near to reach her ears. The bustle of departure put an end to the conversation, and the baggage of the scouts or guides being trifling, and a few minutes the whole party was ready to proceed. As they were about to quit the spot, however, to the surprise of even his fellow guides, pathfinder collected a quantity of branches and threw them upon the embers of the fire, taking care even to see that some of the wood was damp in order to raise as dark and dense as smoke as possible. When you can hide your trail, Jasper, said he, a smoke at leaving an encampment may do good instead of harm. If there are a dozen mingas within ten miles of us, some of them are on the heights, or in the trees, looking out for smokes. Let them see this, and much good may it do them. They are welcome to our leavings. But may they not strike and follow on our trail? Ask the youth, whose interest in the hazard of his situation have much increased since the meeting with Magnet. We shall leave a broad path to the river. The broader the better. When there it will surpass mingo-cunning, even, to say which way the canoe is gone, upstream or down. Water is the only thing in nature that will thoroughly wash out a trail, and even water will not always do it when the scent is strong. Do you not see, Oduce, that if any mingos have seen our path below the falls they will strike off towards this smoke, and that they will naturally conclude that they who began by going upstream will end by going upstream? If they know anything, they know now a party is out from the fort, and it will exceed even mingo-wit to fancy that we have come up here just for the pleasure of going back again, and that too the same day, and at the risk of our scalps. Certainly, added Jasper, who was talking apart with the Pathfinder, as they moved towards the windrow, they cannot know anything about the sergeant's daughter, for the greatest secrecy has been observed on her account. And they will learn nothing here, returned Pathfinder, causing his companion to see that he trod with the utmost care on the impression left on the leaves by the little foot of Mabel. Unless this old salt-water fish has been taking his niece about in the windrow like a fawn playing by the side of the old doe. Buc, you mean, Pathfinder? Isn't he a querity? Now I can concert with such a sailor as yourself, Oduce, and find nothing very contrary in our gifts, though yours belong to the lakes and mine to the woods. See Jasper continued the scout, laughing in his noiseless manner. Suppose we try the temper of his blade and run him over the falls. And what would be done with the pretty niece in the meanwhile? Nay, nay, no harm shall come to her. She must walk round the portage at any rate. But you and I can try this at Lannick Oceaner, and then all parties will become better acquainted. We shall find out whether his flint will strike fire, and he may come to know something of frontier tricks. Young Jasper smiled, for he was not averse to fun, and had been a little touched by Cap's superciliousness. But Mabel's fair face, light, agile form, and winning smiles, stood like a shield between her uncle and the intended experiment. Perhaps the sergeant's daughter will be frightened, said he. Not she, if she has any of the sergeant's spirit in her. She doesn't look like a skeery thing at all. Leave it to me, then, Odus, and I will manage the affair alone. Not you, Pathfinder. You will only drown both. If the canoe goes over, I must go in it. Well, have it so, then. Shall we smoke the pipe of agreement on the bargain? Jasper laughed, nodded his head by way of consent, and then the subject was dropped, as the party had reached the canoe so often mentioned, and fewer words had determined much greater things between the parties. CHAPTER III. Before these fields were shorn and tilled, full to the brim, our rivers flowed, the melody of waters filled, the fresh and boundless wood, and torrents dashed and rivulets played, and fountains spouted in the shade. ATTRIBUTED TO BRYANT It is generally known that the waters which flow into the southern side of Ontario are, in general, narrow, sluggish, and deep. There are some exceptions to this rule, for many of the rivers have rapids, or, as they are termed in the language of the region, rifts, and some have falls. Among the latter was the particular stream on which our adventurers were now journeying. The Oswego is formed by the junction of the Oneida and the Onondaga, both of which flow from lakes, and it pursues its way through a gently undulating country, some eight or ten miles, until it reaches the margin of a sort of natural terrace, down which it tumbles some ten or fifteen feet to another level, across which it glides with the silent, salty progress of deep water, until it throws its tribute into the broad receptacle of the Ontario. The canoe in which Cap and his party had traveled from Fort Stanwyx, the last military station of the Mohawk, laid by the side of this river, and into it the whole party now entered, with the exception of Pathfinder, who remained on the land, in order to shove the light vessel off. "'Let us star and drift downstream, Jasper,' said the man of the woods to the young mariner of the lake, who had dispossessed arrowhead of his paddle, and taken his own station as steersman. "'Let it go down with the current. Should any of these infernals, the mingos, strike our trail or follow it to this point, they will not fail to look for the signs in the mud, and if they discover that we have left the shore with a nose of the canoe upstream, it is a natural belief to think we want upstream.' This direction was followed, and giving a vigorous shove, the Pathfinder, who was in the flower of his strength and activity, made a leap, landing lightly, and without disturbing its equilibrium in the bow of the canoe. As soon as it had reached the center of the river, or the strength of the current, the boat was turned, and it began to glide noiselessly down the stream. The vessel in which Cap and his niece had embarked for their long and adventurous journey was one of the canoes of Bark, which the Indians are in the habit of constructing, and which, by their exceeding lightness and the ease with which they are propelled, are admirably adapted to a navigation in which shoals, flood-wood, and other similar obstructions so often occur. The two men who composed its original crew had several times carried it, when emptied of its luggage, many hundred yards, and it would not have exceeded the strength of a single man to lift its weight. Still, it was long, and for a canoe, wide, a want of steadiness being its principal defect in the eyes of the uninitiated. A few hours' practice, however, in a great measure remedied this conceivable, and both Mabel and her uncle had learned so far to humor its movements that they now maintained their places with perfect composure. Nor did the additional weight of the three guides tax its power in any particular degree, the breadth of the rounded bottom allowing the necessary quantity of water to be displaced without bringing the gunnel very sensibly nearer to the surface of the stream. Its workmanship was neat, the timbers were small and secured by thongs, and the whole fabric, though it was so slight to the eye, was probably capable of conveying double the number of persons which it now contained. Cap was seated on a low thwart in the center of the canoe, the big serpent knelt near him. Arrowhead and his wife occupied places forward of both, the former having relinquished his post aft. Mabel was half-reclining behind her uncle, while the pathfinder and O'Doos stood erect, the one in the bow and the other in the stern, each using a paddle with a long, steady, noiseless sweep. The conversation was carried on in low tones, all the party beginning to feel the necessity of prudence as they drew nearer to the outskirts of the fort, and had no longer the cover of the woods. The Oswego, just at that place, was a deep, dark stream of no great width. This still, gloomy-looking current winding its way among overhanging trees, which in particular spots almost shut out the light of the heavens. Here and there some half-fallen giant of the forest lay nearly across its surface, rendering care necessary to avoid the limbs, and most of the distance, the lower branches and leaves of the trees of smaller growth, were loft by its waters. The picture is so beautifully described by our own admirable poet, and which we have placed at the head of this chapter, was here realized, the earth fattened by the decayed vegetation of centuries, and black with loam, the stream that filled the banks nearly to overflowing, and the fresh and boundless wood, being all as visible to the eye as the pen of Bryant has elsewhere vividly presented them to the imagination. In short, the entire scene was one of a rich and benevolent nature. Before it had been subjected to the uses and desires of man, luxuriant, wild, full of promise, and not without the charm of the picturesque, even in its rudest state, it will be remembered that this was in the year 1750 something, or long before even speculation had brought any portion of Western New York within the bounds of civilization. At that distant day there were two great channels of military communication between the inhabited portion of the Colony of New York, and the frontiers which lay adjacent to the Canada's, that by Lake Champlain and George, and that by means of the Mohawk, Wood Creek, the Oneida, and the rivers we have been describing. Along both these lines of communication military posts have been established, though there existed a blank space of a hundred miles between the last fort at the head of the Mohawk and the outlet of the Oswego, which embraced most of the distance that Cap and Mabel had journeyed under the protection of Arrowhead. I sometimes wish for peace again, said the Pathfinder, when one can range the forest without searching for any other enemy than the beasts and fishes. How's me? Many is the time that the serpent there, and I have passed happily among the streams, living on venison, salmon, and trout, without thought of a mingo, or a scalp. I sometimes wish that them blessed days might come back, for it is not my real gift to slay my own kind. I'm certain the sergeant's daughter don't think me all wretched that takes pleasure in preying on human nature. As this remark, a sort of half-interrogatory, was made, Pathfinder looked behind him, and though the most partial friend could scarcely term his sun-burnt and hard features handsome, even Mabel thought his smile attractive, by its simple ingenuousness, and the uprightness that beamed in every liniment of his honest countenance. I do not think my father would have sent one like those you mentioned to see his daughter through the wilderness. The young woman answered, returning the smile as frankly as it was given, but much more sweetly. That he wouldn't, the sergeant is a man of feeling, and many is the march in the fight that we have had, stood shoulder to shoulder in, as he would call it, though I always keep my limbs free when near a Frencher or a Mingo. You are, then, the young friend of whom my father has spoken so often in his letters? His young friend, the sergeant, has the advantage of me by thirty years. Yes, he is thirty years my senior, and is many my better. Not in the eyes of the daughter, perhaps, friend, Pathfinder, putting cap, whose spirits began to revive when he found the water once more flowing around him. The thirty years that you mention are not often thought to be an advantage in the eyes of girls of nineteen. Mabel colored, and in turning aside her face to avoid the looks of those in the bow of the canoe, she encountered the admiring gaze of the young man in the stern. As a last resource, her spirited but soft blue eyes sought refuge in the water. Just at this moment a dull heavy sound swept up the avenue formed by the trees, borne along by a light air that hardly produced a ripple on the water. "'That sounds pleasantly,' said Cap, pricking up his ears like a dog that hears a distant bane. "'It is the surf on the shores of your lake, I suppose.' "'Not so. Not so,' answered the Pathfinder. "'It is merely this river tumbling over some rocks half a mile below us.' "'Is there a fall in the stream?' commanded Mabel, a still brighter, flush, glowing interface. "'The devil, Master Pathfinder, are you, Mr. Odus?' for so Cap began to stile, Jasper. "'Had you not better give the canoe a shear and get nearer to the shore? These waterfalls have generally rapids above them, and one might as well get into the maelstrom at once as to run into their suction.' "'Trust to us, friend Cap,' answered Pathfinder. We are but freshwater sailors, it is true, and I cannot boast of being much even of that. But we understand rifts and rapids and cataracts, and in going down these we shall do our endeavours not to disgrace our education.' "'In going down,' exclaimed Cap, the devil, man, you do not dream of going down a waterfall in this eggshell of bark. "'Sartan, the path lies over the falls, and it is much easier to shoot them than to unload the canoe and to carry that, and all it contains around a portage of a mile by hand.' Mabel turned her pallid countenance toward the young man in the stern of the canoe, for just at that moment a fresh roar of the fall was born to her ears by a new current of the air, and it really sounded terrific now that the cause was understood. We thought that by landing the females and the two Indians, whoever quietly observed, we three white men, all of whom are used to the water, might carry the canoe over in safety, for we often shoot these falls. "'And we counted on you, friend Mariner, as a mainstay,' said Pathfinder, winking to Jasper over his shoulder, for you are accustomed to see waves tumbling about, and without someone to steady the cargo all the finery of the sergeant's daughter might be washed into the river and be lost.' That was puzzled. The idea of going over a waterfall was, perhaps, more serious in his eyes than it would have been in those of one totally ignorant of all that pertained to boats, for he understood the power of the element, and the total feebleness of man when exposed to its fury. Still his pride revolted at the thought of deserting the boat, while others not only steadily but coolly proposed to continue in it. Notwithstanding the latter feeling, and his innate as well as acquired steadiness and danger, he would probably have deserted his post, had not the images of Indians tearing scalps from the human head, taken so strong a hold of his fancy as to induce him to imagine the canoe a sort of sanctuary. "'What is to be done with magnet?' he demanded, affection for his niece raising another qualm in his conscience. We cannot allow magnet to land if there are enemy Indians near.' "'Nay, no mingo will be near the portage, for that is a spot too public for their devil-trees,' answered the pathfinder confidently. "'Nature is nature, and it is an Indian's nature to be found where he is least expected. No fear of him on a beaten path, for he wishes to come upon you when unprepared to meet him, and the fiery villains make it a point to deceive you one way or another. Here ennoduce, and we will land the sergeant's daughter on the end of that log where she can reach the shore with a dry foot.' The injunction was obeyed, and in a few minutes the whole party had left the canoe, with the exception of the pathfinder and the two sailors. Notwithstanding his professional pride, Cap would have gladly followed, but he did not like to exhibit so unequivocal a weakness in the presence of a freshwater sailor. "'I call all hands to witness,' said he, as those who had landed moved away, "'that I do not look on this affair as anything more than canoeing in the woods. There is no seamanship in tumbling over a waterfall, which is a feat the greatest lover can perform as well as the oldest mariner.' "'Nay, nay, you needn't despise the Oswego Falls, neither,' put in pathfinder, for, though they may not be Niagara, nor the Genesee, nor the Kahoos, nor Glens, nor those on the Canada. They are nervous enough for a new beginner. Let the sergeant's daughter stand on yonder rock, and she will see the matter in which we ignorant backwoodsmen get over a difficulty that we can't get under. Now, Odu's, a steady hand, and a true eye, for all rests on you, seeing that we can count Master Cap for no more than a passenger.' The canoe was leaving the shore as he concluded, while Mabel went hurriedly and trembling to the rock that had been pointed out. Talking to her companion of the danger, her uncle so unnecessarily ran, while her eyes were riveted on the agile and vigorous form of Odu's, as he stood erect in the stern of the light boat, governing its movements. As soon, however, as she reached a point where she got a view of the fall, she gave an involuntary but suppressed scream and covered her eyes. At the next instant the latter were again free, and the entranced girl stood immovable as a statue, a scarcely breathing observer of all that passed. The two Indians seated themselves passively on a log, hardly looking towards the stream, while the wife of Arrowhead came near Mabel and appeared to watch the motions of the canoe with some such interest as a child regards the leaps of a tumbler. As soon as the boat was in the stream, Pathfinder sank on his knees, continuing to use the paddle, though it was slowly and in a manner not to interfere with the efforts of his companion. The latter still stood erect, and as he kept his eye on some object beyond the fall, it was evident that he was carefully looking for the spot proper for their passage. Far the west, boy, far the west! muttered Pathfinder. There where you see the water foam, bring the top of the dead oak in a line with the stern of the blasted hemlock. Odus made no answer, for the canoe was in the center of the stream, with his head pointed towards the fall, and it had already begun to quicken its motion by the increased force of the current. At that moment Capwood cheerfully have renounced every claim to glory that could possibly be acquired by the feet to have been safe again on shore. He heard the roar of the water, thundering as it might be behind a screen, but becoming more and more distinct, louder and louder, and before him he saw its line cutting the forest below, along which the green and angry elements seemed stretched and shining as if the particles were about to lose their principle of cohesion. Down with your helm, down with your helm, men! he exclaimed, unable any longer to suppress his anxiety as the canoe glided towards the edge of the fall. Aye, aye, down it is, sure enough! answered Pathfinder, looking behind him for a single instant, with his silent joyous laugh. Down we go of a sartenty! Heaver, stern up, boy, farther up with a stern! The rest was like the passage of the viewless wind. Odus gave the required sweep with his paddle. The canoe glanced into the channel, and for a few seconds it seemed to cap that he was tossing in a cauldron. He felt the bow of the canoe tip, saw the raging foaming water careering madly by his side, was sensible that the light fabric in which he floated was tossed about like an eggshell, and then, not less to his great joy than to his surprise, he discovered that it was gliding across the basin of still water below the fall, under the steady impulse of Jasper's paddle. The Pathfinder continued to laugh, but he arose from his knees, and searching for a tin pot and a horned spoon, he began deliberately to measure the water that he had taken in the passage. Fourteen spoonfuls, Odus, fourteen fairly measured spoonfuls! I have, you must acknowledge, known you to go down with only ten. Master Cap leaned so hard upstream, returned Jasper seriously, that I had difficulty in trimming the canoe. It may be so, no doubt it was so, since you say it, but I have known you to go over with only ten. Cap now gave a tremendous hem, felt for his cue as if to ascertain its safety, and then look back in order to examine the danger he had gone through. His safety is easily explained, most of the river fell perpendicularly ten or twelve feet, but near its center the force of the current had so far worn away the rock as to permit the water to shoot through a narrow passage at an angle of about forty or forty-five degrees. Down this ticklish descent the canoe had glanced amid fragments of broken rock, whirlpools, foam, and furious tossings of the element, which an uninstructed eye would have believed menaced inevitable destruction to an object so fragile. But the very lightness of the canoe had favored its descent for, born on the crest of the waves, and directed by a steady eye and an arm full of muscle, it had passed like a feather from one pile of foam to another, scarcely permitting its glossy side to be wedded. There were a few rocks to be avoided, the proper direction was to be rigidly observed, and the fierce current did the rest. Once the reader suppose we are dealing purely in fiction, the writer will add that he has known a long thirty-two pounder carried over these same falls in perfect safety. To say that Cap was astonished would not be expressing half his feelings, he felt awed, for the profound dread of rocks which most seamen entertain came in aid of his aberration of the boldness of the exploit. Still he was indisposed to express all he felt, lest it might be conceding too much in favor of fresh water and inland navigation, and no sooner had he cleared his throat with the aforesaid hem, than he loosened his tongue in the usual strain of superiority. I did not gain, say, your knowledge of the channel, Master O'Doose, and, after all, to know the channel in such a place as the main point. I have had coxons with me who could come down that chute, too, if they only knew the channel. It isn't enough to know the channel, said Pathfinder. It needs nerves and skill to keep the canoe straight, and to keep her clear of the rocks, too. There isn't another boatman in all this region that can shoot the Oswego, but O'Doose there, with any certainty, though now and then one is blundered through. I can't do it myself, unless by means of providence, and it needs Jasper's hand and I to make sure of a dry passage. Fourteen spoonfuls, after all, are of no great matter, though I wish it had been but ten, seeing that the sergeant's daughter was a looker on. And yet you conned the canoe, you told him how to head, and how to shear. Human frailty, Master Mariner, that was a little of white-skinned nature. Now, had the serpent yonder been in the boat, not a word would he have spoken or thought would he have given to the public. An Indian knows how to hold his tongue, but we white folk fancy we are always wiser than our fellows. I am curing myself fast of the weakness, but it needs time to root up the tree that has been growing more than thirty years. I think little of this affair, sir. Nothing at all to speak my mind freely. It's a mere wash of spray to shooting London Bridge, which is done every day by hundreds of persons, and often by the most delicate ladies in the land. The King's Majesty has shot the bridge in his royal person. Well, I want no delicate ladies or King's Majesty's, God bless them, in the canoe, in going over these falls. For a boat's breath, either way, may make a drowning matter of it. Oh, deuce, we shall have to carry the sergeant's brother over Niagara yet, to show him what may be done in a frontier. The devil! Master Pathfinder, you must be joking now. Really it is not possible for a barc canoe to go over that mighty cataract. You never were more mistaken, Master Cap, in your life. Nothing is easier, and many is the canoe I have seen go over it with my own eyes, and if we both live I hope to satisfy you that the feat can be done. For my part I think the largest ship that ever sailed on the ocean might be carried over. Could she once get into the rapids? Cap did not perceive the wink which Pathfinder exchanged with Oh deuce, and he remained silent for some time. For sooth to say, he had never suspected the possibility of going down Niagara, feasible as the thing must appear to everyone on a second thought, the real difficulty existing in going up it. By this time the party had reached the place where Jasper had left his own canoe, concealed in the bushes, and they all re-embarked. Cap, Jasper, and his niece in one boat, and Pathfinder, Arrowhead, and the wife of the latter, and the other. The Mohican had already passed down the banks of the river by land, looking cautiously and with the skill of his people for the signs of an enemy. The cheek of Mabel did not recover all its bloom until the canoe was again in the current, down which it floated swiftly, occasionally impelled by the paddle of Jasper. She witnessed the descent of the falls with a degree of terror, which had rendered her mute, but her fright had not been so great as to prevent admiration of the steadiness of the youth who directed the movement from blending with the passing terror. In truth one much less sensitive might have had her feelings awakened by the cool and gallant air with which Oduse had accomplished this clever exploit. He had stood firmly erect, notwithstanding the plunge, and to those on the shore it was evident that, by a timely application of his skill and strength, the canoe had received a shear which alone carried it clear of a rock over which the boiling water was leaping in jet's dough, now leaving the brown stone visible, and now covering it with a limpid sheet, as if machinery controlled the play of the element. The tongue cannot always express what the eyes view, but Mabel saw enough, even in that moment of fear, to blend forever in her mind the pictures presented by the plunging canoe and the unmoved steersman. She admitted that insidious feeling which binds women so strongly to man, by feeling additional security in finding herself under his care, and, for the first time since leaving Fort Stanwyx, she was entirely at her ease in the frail bark in which she travelled. As the other canoe kept quite near her own, however, and the path finder, by floating at her side, was most in view, the conversation was principally maintained with that person, Jasper seldom speaking unless addressed, and constantly exhibiting awareness in the management of his own boat, which might have been remarked by one accustomed to his ordinarily confident careless manner. We know too well a woman's gifts to think of carrying the sergeant's daughter over the falls, said path finder, looking at Mabel while he addressed her uncle, though I've been acquainted with some of her sex that would think but little of doing the thing. Mabel is fate-hearted, like her mother, returned cap, and you did well friend to humour her weakness. You will remember the child has never been at sea. No, no, it was easy to discover that. By your own fearlessness, any one might have seen how little you cared about the matter. I went over once with a raw hand, and he jumped out of the canoe just as it tipped, and you may judge what a time he had of it. What became of the poor fellow, asked Cap, scarcely knowing how to take the other's manner, which was so dry, while it was so simple that a less up-to-subject than the old sailor might well have suspected its sincerity. One who has passed the place knows how to feel for him. He was a poor fellow, as you say, and a poor frontiersman, too, though he came out to show his skill among us ignoranters. What became of him? Why, he went down the falls topsy-turvy like, as would have happened to a courthouse or a fort. If it should jump out of that canoe, interrupted Jasper smiling, though he was evidently more disposed than his friend to let the passage of the falls be forgotten. The boy is right, rejoined Pathfinder, laughing in Mabel's face. The canoes being now so near that they almost touched. He is sardinely right. But you have not told us what you think of the leap we took. It was perilous and bold, said Mabel. While looking at it I could have wished that it had not been attempted, though now it is over I can admire its boldness and the steadiness with which it was made. Now do not think that we did this thing to set ourselves off in female eyes. It may be pleasant to the young to win each other's good opinions by doing things which seem praiseworthy and bold, but neither oduce nor myself is of that race. My nature has few turns in it and is a straight nature, nor would it be likely to lead me into a vanity of this sort while out on duty. As for Jasper, he would sooner go over the Oswego Falls without a looker on, than do it before a hundred pair of eyes. I know the lad well from much consorting, and I am sure he is not boastful or vain glorious. Mabel regarded the scout with a smile, which served to keep the canoes together for some time longer, for the sight of youth and beauty was so rare on that remote frontier that even the rebuked and self-mortified feelings of this wanderer of the forest were sensibly touched by the blooming loveliness of the girl. We did it for the best, Pathfinder continued, it was all for the best. Had we waited to carry the canoe across the portage, time would have been lost, and nothing is so precious as time when you are mistrustful of mingos. But we have little to fear now. The canoes move swiftly, and two hours you have said will carry us down to the fort. It shall be a cunning Iroquois who hurts a hair of your head, you one, for all here are bound to the sergeant, and most, I think, to yourself, to see you safe from harm. Ha! Oh, deuce! What is that in the river at the lower turn yonder, beneath the bushes? I am, I mean, standing on the rock. Tis the big serpent, Pathfinder! He is making signs to us in a way I don't understand. Tis the serpent, as sure as I'm a white man, and he wishes us to drop in nearer to his shore. Stifis brewing, or one of his deliberation in steadiness, would never take this trouble. Courage all! We are men, and must meet deviltry as becomes our color and our callings. Ah, I never knew good come of boasting. And here, just as I was