CHAPTER VIII.
The elfin cast a glance around, As he lighted down from his courser toad, Then round his breast his wings he wound, And close to the river's brink he strode; He sprang on a rock, he breathed a prayer, Above his head his arm he threw, Then tossed a tiny curve in air, And headlong plunged in the water blue. DRAKE.
An hour had intervened between the time when le Bourdon had removed thecanoes of the Pottawattamies, and the time when he returned alone to thenorthern side of the river. In the course of that hour the chief of thesavages had time to ascertain all the leading circumstances that havejust been related, and to collect his people in and around the hut, fora passing council. The moment was one of action, and not of ceremonies.No pipe was smoked, nor any of the observances of the great councilsof the tribe attended to; the object was merely to glean facts andto collect opinions. In all the tribes of this part of North America,something very like a principle of democracy is the predominant featureof their politics. It is not, however, that bastard democracy whichis coming so much in fashion among ourselves, and which looks into thegutters solely for the "people," forgetting that the landlord has justas much right to protection as the tenant, the master as the servant,the rich as the poor, the gentleman as the blackguard. The Indiansknow better than all this. They understand, fully, that the chiefs areentitled to more respect than the loafers in their villages, and listento the former, while their ears are shut to the latter. They appearto have a common sense, which teaches them to avoid equally theexaggerations of those who believe in blood, and of those who believein blackguardism. With them the doctrines of "new men" would sound asan absurdity, for they never submit to change for change's sake. Onthe contrary, while there is no positive hereditary rank, there is muchhereditary consideration; and we doubt if a red man could be foundin all America, who is so much of a simpleton as to cite among thequalifications of any man for a situation of trust and responsibility,that he had never been TAUGHT how to perform its duties. They arenot guilty of the contradiction of elevating men BECAUSE they areself-taught, while they expend millions on schools. Doubtless theyhave, after a fashion of their own, demagogues and Caesars, but they areusually kept within moderate limits; and in rare instances, indeed,do either ever seriously trespass on the rights of the tribe. As humannature is everywhere the same, it is not to be supposed that purejustice prevails even among savages; but one thing would seem to becertain, that, all over the world, man in his simplest and wildest stateis more apt to respect his own ordinances, than when living in what isdeemed a condition of high civilization.
When le Bourdon reached the point whence he could get a good view ofthe door of the hut, which was still illuminated by the fire within, heceased using the paddle beyond the slight effort necessary to keep thecanoe nearly stationary. He was quite within the range of a rifle, buttrusted to the darkness of the night for his protection. That scoutswere out, watching the approaches to the hut, he felt satisfied; and hedid not doubt that some were prowling along the margin of the Kalamazoo,either looking for the lost boats, or for those who had taken them away.This made him cautious, and he took good care not to place his canoe ina position of danger.
It was very apparent that the savages were in great uncertainty as tothe number of their enemies. Had not the rifle been fired, and theirwarrior killed and scalped, they might have supposed that their prisonerhad found the means of releasing his limbs himself, and thus effectedhis escape; but they knew that the Chippewa had neither gun nor knife,and as all their own arms, even to those of the dead man, were still intheir possession, it was clear that he had been succored from without.Now, the Pottawattamies had heard of both the bee-hunter and WhiskeyCentre, and it was natural enough for them to ascribe some of theseunlooked-for feats to one or the other of these agents. It is true,the hut was known to have been built three or four years earlier, by anIndian trader, and no one of the party had ever actually seen Gershomand his family in possession; but the conjectures on this head were asnear the fact, as if the savages had passed and repassed daily. Therewas only one point on which these close calculators of events were atfault. So thoroughly had everything been removed from the chiente, andso carefully the traces of its recent occupation concealed, that no oneamong them suspected that the family had left the place only an hourbefore their own arrival. The bee-hunter, moreover, was well assuredthat the savages had not yet blundered on the hiding-place of thefurniture. Had this been discovered, its contents would have beendragged to light, and seen around the fire; for there is usually littleself-restraint among the red men, when they make a prize of this sort.
Nevertheless, there was one point about which even those keen-scentedchildren of the forest were much puzzled, and which the bee-hunterperfectly comprehended, notwithstanding the distance at which he wascompelled to keep himself. The odor of the whiskey was so strong, in andabout the chiente, that the Pottawattamies did not know what to makeof it. That there should be the remains of this peculiar smell--oneso fragrant and tempting to those who are accustomed to indulge in theliquor--in the hut itself, was natural enough; but the savages wereperplexed at finding it so strong on the declivity down which thebarrels had been rolled. On this subject were they conversing, whenle Bourdon first got near enough to observe their proceedings. Afterdiscussing the matter for some time, torches were lighted, and most ofthe party followed a grim old warrior, who had an exceedingly true nosefor the scent of whiskey, and who led them to the very spot where thehalf-barrel had been first stove by rolling off a rock, and where itscontents had been mainly spilled. Here the earth was yet wet in places,and the scent was so strong as to leave no doubt of the recent nature ofthe accident which had wasted so much of a liquor that was very preciousin Pottawattamie eyes; for accident they thought it must be, since nosane man could think of destroying the liquor intentionally.
All the movements, gestures, and genuflections of the savages wereplainly seen by the bee-hunter. We say the genuflections, for nearly allof the Indians got on their knees and applied their noses to the earth,in order to scent the fragrance of the beloved whiskey; some out ofcuriosity, but more because they loved even this tantalizingindulgence, when no better could be had. But le Bourdon was right in hisconjectures, that the matter was not to end here. Although most of theIndians scented the remains of the whiskey out of love for the liquor, afew of their number reasoned on the whole transaction with quite as muchacuteness as could have been done by the shrewdest natural philosopherliving. To them it was very apparent that no great length of time, a fewhours at most, could have elapsed since that whiskey was spilled; andhuman hands must have brought it there, in the first place, and pouredit on the ground, in the second. There must have been a strong reasonfor such an act, and that reason presented itself to their minds withunerring accuracy. Their own approach must have been seen, and theliquor was destroyed because it could not be removed in time to preventits falling into their hands. Even the precise manner in which thewhiskey had been disposed of was pretty nearly conjectured by a few ofthe chiefs, acute and practised as they were; who, accustomed to thisspecies of exercise of their wits, had some such dexterity in examiningfacts of this nature, and in arriving at just results, as the men of theschools manifest in the inquiries that more especially belong to theirhabits and training. But their conclusions were confined to themselves;and they were also sufficiently enveloped in doubts, to leave those whomade them ready enough to receive new impressions on the same subject.
All this, moreover, le Bourdon both saw and understood; or, if notabsolutely all, so much of it as to let him comprehend the mainconclusions of the savages, as well as the process by which they werereached. To obtain light, the Indians made a fire near the charmed spot,which brought themselves and their movements into plain view from thecanoe of the bee-hunter. Curiosity now became strongly awakened in thelatter, and he ventured in nearer to the shore, in order to get thebest possible view of what was goin
g on. In a manner, he was solvingan enigma; and he experienced the sort of pleasure we all feel atexercising our wits on difficulties of that nature. The interest he feltrendered the young man careless as respected the position of his canoe,which drifted down before the strong breeze, until le Bourdon foundhimself in the very edge of the wild rice, which at this point formedbut a very narrow belt along the beach. It was this plant, indeed, thatcontributed to make the young man so regardless of his drift, for helooked upon the belt of rice as a species of landmark to warn him whento turn. But, at no other spot along that whole shore, where the plantwas to be found at all, was its belt so narrow as at this, immediatelyopposite to the new fire of the savages, and almost within theinfluence of its rays. To le Bourdon's surprise, and somewhat to hisconsternation, just as his little craft touched the rice, the forms oftwo stout warriors passed along the beach, between him and the light,their feet almost dipping in the water. So near were these two warriorsto him, that, on listening intently, he heard not only their voices,as they communicated their thoughts to each other in low tones, butthe tread of their moccasined feet on the ground. Retreat, under thecircumstances, would not be safe, for it must have been made underthe muzzles of the rifles; and but one resource presented itself. Bygrasping in his hand two or three stalks of the rice-plant, and holdingthem firmly, the drift of the canoe was arrested.
After a moment's reflection, le Bourdon was better satisfied with thisnew station than he had been on first gaining it. To have ventured onsuch a near approach to his enemies, he would have regarded as madness;but now he was there, well concealed among the rice, he enjoyed theadvantages of observation it gave him, and looked upon the chance thatbrought him there as lucky. He found a thong of buckskin, and fastenedhis canoe to the stalks of the plant, thus anchoring or mooring hislittle bark, and leaving himself at liberty to move about in it. Therice was high enough to conceal him, even when erect, and he had somedifficulty in finding places favorable to making his observationsthrough it. When the bee-hunter made his way into the bow of his canoe,however, which he did with a moccasined and noiseless foot, he wasstartled at perceiving how small was his cover. In point of fact, he wasnow within three feet of the inner edge of the rice-plant, which grewwithin ten feet of the shore, where the two warriors already mentionedwere still standing, in close communication with each other. Their faceswere turned toward the fire, the bright light from which, at times,streamed over the canoe itself, in a way to illumine all it contained.The first impulse of le Bourdon, on ascertaining how closely he haddrifted to the shore, was to seize a paddle and make off, but a secondthought again told him it would be far safer to remain where he was.Taking his seat, therefore, on a bit of board laid athwart, from gunwaleto gunwale, if such a craft can be said to have gunwales at all, hepatiently waited the course of events.
By this time, all or nearly all of the Pottawattamies had collected onthis spot, on the side of the hill. The hut was deserted, its fire gotto be low, and darkness reigned around the place. On the other hand,the Indians kept piling brush on their new fire, until the whole ofthat hill-side, the stream at its foot, and the ravine through which thelatter ran, were fairly illuminated. Of course, all within the influenceof this light was to be distinctly seen, and the bee-hunter wassoon absorbed in gazing at the movements of savage enemies, undercircumstances so peculiar.
The savages seemed to be entranced by the singular, and to most of themunaccountable circumstance of the earth's giving forth the scent offresh whiskey, in a place so retired and unknown. While two or three oftheir number had certain inklings of the truth, as has been stated,to much the greater portion of their body it appeared to be a profoundmystery; and one that, in some inexplicable manner, was connected withthe recent digging up of the hatchet. Ignorance and superstition evergo hand in hand, and it was natural that many, perhaps most of theseuninstructed beings should thus consider so unusual a fragrance, on sucha spot. Whiskey has unfortunately obtained a power over the red man ofthis continent that it would require many Fathers Matthew to suppress,and which can only be likened to that which is supposed to belong to theinfluence of witchcraft. The Indian is quite as sensible as the whiteman of the mischief that the "fire-water" produces; but, like the whiteman, he finds how hard it is to get rid of a master passion, when wehave once submitted ourselves to its sway. The portion of the band thatcould not account for the fact of the scent of their beloved beverage'sbeing found in such a place, and it was all but three of their wholeparty, were quite animated in their discussions on the subject, andmany and crude were the suggestions that fell from their lips. Thetwo warriors on the beach were more deeply impressed than any of theircompanions, with the notion that some "medicine charm" was connectedwith this extraordinary affair.
The reader will not be surprised to hear that le Bourdon gazed on thescene before him with the most profound attention. So near did he seemto be, and so near was he, in fact, to the savages who were groupedaround the fire, that he fancied he could comprehend what they weresaying, by the expressions of their grim and swarthy countenances.His conjectures were in part just, and occasionally the bee-hunter wasabsolutely accurate in his notions of what was said. The frequency withwhich different individuals knelt on the ground, to scent an odor thatis always so pleasant to the red man, would of itself have given aclew to the general character of the discourse; but the significant andexpressive gestures, the rapid enunciation, and the manner in which theeyes of the speakers glanced from the faces near themselves to the spotconsecrated by whiskey, pretty plainly told the story. It was while thusintently occupied in endeavoring to read the singular impression madeon the minds of most of those wild beings, by an incident so much out ofthe usual track of their experience, that le Bourdon suddenly found thebow of his canoe thrusting itself beyond the inner margin of the rice,and issuing into open water, within ten feet of the very spot where thetwo nearest of the savages were still conferring together, apart. Thebuckskin thong which served as a fastening had got loosened, and thelight craft was again drifting down before the strong southerly wind,which still continued to blow a little gale.
Had there been an opportunity for such a thing, the bee-hunter wouldhave made an effort to escape. But so sudden and unexpected was thisexposure, that he found himself almost within reach of a rifle, beforehe was aware of his approaching the two warriors on the shore, at all.His paddle was in the stern of the canoe, and had he used the utmostactivity, the boat would have grounded on the beach, ere he could haveobtained it. In this situation, therefore, he was absolutely without anyother means than his hands of stopping the canoe, had there even beentime.
Le Bourdon understood his real situation without stopping to reflect;and, though his heart made one violent leap as soon as he perceived hewas out of cover, he immediately bethought him of the course he ought topursue. It would have been fatal to betray alarm, or to attempt flight.As accident had thus brought him, as it might be on a visit, to thespot, he at once determined to give his arrival the character of afriendly call, and the better to support the pretension, to blend withit, if possible, a little of the oracular, or "medicine" manner, inorder to impose on the imaginations of the superstitious beings intowhose power he had so unwittingly fallen.
The instant the canoe touched the shore, and it was only a moment afterit broke through the cover, le Bourdon arose, and extending his handto the nearest Indian, saluted him with the mongrel term of "Sago." Aslight exclamation from this warrior communicated to his companion anarrival that was quite as much a matter of surprise to the Indians as totheir guest, and through this second warrior to the whole party on thehill-side. A little clamor succeeded, and presently the bee-hunter wassurrounded with savages.
The meeting was marked by the self-command and dignified quiet that areso apt to distinguish the deportment of Indian warriors, when they areon the war-path, and alive to the duties of manhood. The bee-huntershook hands with several, who received his salutations with perfectcalmness, if not with absolute confidence and ami
ty. This littleceremony gave our hero an opportunity to observe the swarthycountenances by which he was surrounded, most of which were fierce intheir paint, as well as to reflect a little on his own course. By afortunate inspiration he now determined to assume the character of a"medicine man," and to connect his prophecies and juggleries with thislucky accident of the whiskey. Accordingly, he inquired if any one spokeEnglish, not wishing to trust his explanations to his own imperfectknowledge of the Ojebway tongue, which is spoken by all the numeroustribes of that widely-extended nation. Several could renderthemselves intelligible in English, and one was so expert as to rendercommunication with him easy, if not very agreeable. As the savages,however, soon insisted on examining the canoe, and taking a look at itscontents, previously to listening to their visitor's explanations,le Bourdon was fain to submit, and to let the young men satisfy theircuriosity.
The bee-hunter had come on his hazardous expedition in his own canoe.Previously to quitting the south shore, however, he had lightenedthe little craft, by landing everything that was not essential to hispresent purpose. As nearly half of his effects were in the canoe ofWhiskey Centre, the task was soon performed, and lucky it was for ourhero that he had bethought him of the prudence of the measure. His soleobject had been to render the canoe swifter and lighter, in the eventof a chase; but, as things turned out, he saved no small portion ofhis property by using the precaution. The Indians found nothing inthe canoe, but one rifle, with a horn and pouch, a few light articlesbelonging to the bee-hunter's domestic economy, and which he had notthought it necessary to remove, and the paddles. All the honey, and theskins and stores, and spare powder, and lead, and, in short, everythingelse that belonged to le Bourdon, was still safe on the other side ofthe river. The greatest advantage gained by the Pottawattamies was inthe possession of the canoe itself, by means of which they would now beenabled to cross the Kalamazoo, or make any other similar expedition, bywater.
But, as yet, not a sign of hostility was betrayed by either party. Thebee-hunter seemed to pay no attention to his rifle and ammunition, oreven to his canoe, while the savages, after having warily examinedthe last, together with its contents, returned to their visitor, tore-examine him, with a curiosity as lively as it was full of distrust.At this stage in the proceeding, something like a connected andintelligible conversation commenced between the chief who spokeEnglish, and who was known in most of the north-western garrisons of theAmericans by the name of Thundercloud, or Cloud, by way of abbreviation,on account of his sinister looks, though the man actually sustained atolerably fair reputation for one of those who, having been wronged, wasso certain to be calumniated. No man was ever yet injured, that he hasnot been slandered.
"Who kill and scalp my young man?" asked Cloud, a little abruptly.
"Has my brother lost a warrior?" was the calm reply. "Yes, I see that hehas. A medicine-man can see that, though it is dark."
"Who kill him, if can see?-who scalp him, too?"
"An enemy did both," answered le Bourdon, oracularly. "Yes; 'twas anenemy that killed him; and an enemy that took his scalp."
"Why do it, eh? Why come here to take Pottawattamia scalp, when nowar-path open, eh?"
"Pottawattamie, the truth must always be said to a medicine-man. Thereis no use in trying to hide truth from HIM. There IS a war-path open;and a long and a tangled path it is. My Great Father at Washington hasdug up the hatchet against my Great Father at Quebec. Enemies alwaystake scalps when they can get them."
"Dat true--dat right, too--nobody grumble at DAT--but who enemy?pale-face or red-skin?"
"This time it was a red-skin--a Chippewa--one of your own nation, thoughnot of your own tribe. A warrior called Pigeonswing, whom you had inthongs, intending to torture him in the morning. He cut his thongs, andshot your young man--after which he took his scalp."
"How know dat?" demanded the Cloud, a little fiercely. "You 'long, andhelp kill Pottawattamie, eh?"
"I know it," answered le Bourdon, coolly, "because medicine-men knowmost of what happens. Do not be so hasty, chief, for this is a medicinespot--whiskey GROWS here."
A common exclamation escaped all of the red men, who comprehendedthe clear, distinct, and oracular-like language and manner of thebee-hunter. He intended to make an impression on his listeners, and hesucceeded admirably; perhaps as much by means of manner as of matter.As has been said, all who understood his words--some four or five of theparty--grunted forth their surprise at this evidence of their guest'sacquaintance with the secrets of the place, in which they were joined bythe rest of their companions, as soon as the words of the pale-face hadbeen translated. Even the experienced and wary old chiefs, who had morethan half conjectured the truth, in connection with this mysterious odorof whiskey, were much unsettled in their opinions concerning the wonder,and got to be in that condition of mind when a man does not know whatto think of any particular event. The bee-hunter, quick-witted, andmanaging for his life, was not slow to perceive the advantage he hadgained, and he proceeded at once to clinch the nail he had so skilfullydriven. Turning from Cloud to the head-chief of the party, a warriorwhom he had no difficulty in recognizing, after having so long watchedhis movements in the earlier part of the night, he pushed the samesubject a little further.
"Yes; this place is called by the whites Whiskey Centre," headded--"which means that it is the centre of all the whiskey of thecountry round about."
"Dat true," said Cloud, quickly--"I hear so'ger at Fort Dearborn callhim Whiskey Centre!"
This little circumstance greatly complicated the mystery, and le Bourdonperceived that he had hit on a lucky explanation.
"Soldiers far and near--soldiers drunk or sober--soldiers with scalps,and soldiers without scalps--all know the place by that name. But youneed not believe with your eyes shut and noses stopped, chief, since youhave the means of learning for yourselves the truth of what I tell you.Come with me, and I will tell you where to dig in the morning for awhiskey spring."
This communication excited a tremendous feeling among the savages, whenits purport came to be explained to the whole party. Apart from theextraordinary, miraculous nature of such a spring, which in itself wassufficient to keep alive expectation and gratify curiosity, it was socomfortable to have an inexhaustible supply of the liquor running out ofthe bowels of the earth, that it is no wonder the news spread infinitedelight among the listeners. Even the two or three of the chiefs whohad so shrewdly divined the manner in which the liquor had been spilled,were staggered by the solemnity and steadiness of the bee-hunter'smanner, and perhaps a little carried away by sympathy with those aroundthem. This yielding of the human mind to the influence of numbers isso common an occurrence as scarcely to require explanation, and isthe source of half the evils that popular associations inflict onthemselves. It is not that men capable of SEEING the truth are everwanting; but men capable of MAINTAINING it, in the face of clamor andcollected power.
It will be readily conceived that a medicine-man who is supposed topossess the means of discovering a spring that should overflow with purewhiskey, would not be left without urgent demands for a speedy exerciseof this art. This was now the case with le Bourdon, who was called onfrom all sides to point out the precise spot where the young men wereto commence digging in order to open on the treasure. Our hero knew thathis only hope of escape was connected with his steadily maintaining hisassumed character; or of maintaining this assumed character, withhis going on, at once, to do something that might have the effect,temporarily at least, of satisfying the impatience of his now attentivelisteners. Accordingly, when the demand was made on him to give someevidence of his power, he set about the task, not only with composure,but with a good deal of ingenuity.
Le Bourdon, it will be remembered, had, with his own hands, rolled thetwo barrels of whiskey down the declivity. Feeling the great importanceof effectually destroying them, he had watched their descent, fromthe top to the bottom of the hill, and the final disappearance of thestaves, etc., into the torrent which brawled at its fo
ot. It had sohappened that the half-filled cask broke and let out its liquor at apoint much more remote from the stream, than the filled. The latterhad held together until it went over the low rocky precipice, alreadymentioned, and was stove at its base, within two yards of the torrent,which received all its fragments and swept them away, including mostof the liquor itself; but not until the last had been spilled. Now,the odorous spot which had attracted the noses of the savages, and nearwhich they had built their fire, was that where the smallest quantityof the whiskey had fallen. Le Bourdon reasoned on these circumstancesin this wise:--if half a barrel of the liquor can produce so strong ascent, a barrel filled ought to produce one still stronger; and I willmanifest my medicine-character, by disregarding for the present momentthe spot on the hill-side, and proceed at once to that at the footof the rocks. To this latter point, therefore, did he direct allthe ceremony, as well as his own footsteps, when he yielded to thesolicitations of the Pottawattamies, and undertook to point out theposition of the whiskey spring.
The bee-hunter understood the Indian character too well to forget toembellish his work with a proper amount of jugglery and acting. Luckily,he had left in the canoe a sort of frock of mottled colors that he hadmade himself, to wear in the woods in the autumn as a hunting-dress,under the notion that such a covering would conceal his approach fromhis game, by blending its hues with those of the autumn leaf. This dresshe now assumed, extorting a good deal of half-suppressed admiration fromthe younger warriors, by the gay appearance he made. Then he drew outhis spy-glass to its greatest length, making various mysterious signsand gestures as he did so. This glass proved to be a great auxiliary,and possibly alone kept the doubters in awe. Le Bourdon saw at once thatit was entirely new, even to the oldest chief, and he felt how muchit might be made to assist him. Beckoning to Cloud, and adjusting thefocus, he directed the small end of his glass to the fire, and placedthe large end to that Indian's eye. A solitary savage, who loved thescent of whiskey too much to tear himself away from the spot, waslingering within the influence of the rays, and of course was seen bythe chief, with his person diminished to that of a dwarf, and his formthrown to a seeming distance.
An eloquent exclamation followed this exhibition of the medicine-man'spower; and each of the chiefs, and most of the other warriors, weregratified with looks through the glass.
"What dat mean?" demanded Cloud, earnestly. "See Wolfeye well'nough--why he so little?--why he so far off, he?"
"That is to show you what a medicine-man of the pale-faces can do, whenhe is so minded. That Indian is named Wolfseye, and he loves whiskey toowell. That I know, as well as I know his name."
Each of these exhibitions of intelligence extorted exclamations ofwonder. It is true, that one or two of the higher chiefs understood thatthe name might possibly have been obtained from Cloud; but how was themedicine-man to know that Wolfseye was a drunkard? This last had notbeen said in terms; but enough had been said, to let those whowere aware of the propensity feel that more was meant than had beenexpressed. Before there was time, however, to deliberate on, or todissect this specimen of mysterious knowledge, le Bourdon reversed theglass, and applied the small end to the eye of Cloud, after having givenit its former direction. The Indian fairly yelled, partly with dread,and partly with delight, when he saw Wolfseye, large as life, brought sonear him that he fancied he might be touched with his own hand.
"What dat mean?" exclaimed Cloud, as soon as surprise and awe enabledhim to find his voice. "Fuss he little, den he big--fuss he great way,den he close by--what dat mean, eh?"
"It means that I am a medicine-man, and this is a medicine-glass, andthat I can see with it into the earth, deeper than the wells, or higherthan the mountains!"
These words were translated, and explained to all three. They extortedmany ejaculations of wonder, and divers grunts of admiration andcontentment. Cloud conferred a moment with the two principal chiefs;then he turned eagerly to the bee-hunter, saying--
"All good, but want to hear more--want to l'arn more--want to SEE more."
"Name your wants freely, Pottawattamie," answered le Bourdon, withdignity, "they shall be satisfied."
"Want to see--want to TASTE whiskey spring--see won't do--want to TASTE"
"Good--you shall smell first; then you shall see; after that you shalltaste. Give me room, and be silent; a great medicine is near."
Thus delivering himself, le Bourdon proceeded with his necromancy.