He spoke evidently with a good deal of heat; but his feelings were those of a vast multitude of the American colonists, and those feelings were preparing the way for a great revolution.
"Come, come, Woodchuck!" exclaimed Walter Prevost, with a laugh, "you are growing warm; and when you are angry you bite. The Major wants to hear your notions of the state of the English power here, and not your censure of the King's government."
"God bless King George!" cried the other, warmly, "and send him all prosperity. There's not a more loyal man in the land than I am; but it vexes me all the more to see his ministers throwing away his people's hearts and losing his possessions into the bargain. But I'll tell you how it is, Major--at least how I think it is--and then you'll see. But I must go back a bit. Here are we, the English, in the middle of this North America; and we have got the French on both sides of us. Well, we have a right to the country all across the continent--and we must have it, for it is our only safety. But the French don't want us to be safe, and so they are trying to get behind us and push us into the sea. They have been trying it a long time, and we have taken no notice. They have pushed their posts from Canada right along by the Wabash and the Ohio from Lake Erie to the Mississippi, and they have built forts, and won over Ingians, drawing a string round us, which they will tighten every day unless we act. And what have the ministers been doing all the time? Why, for a long time they did nothing at all. First, the French were suffered boldly to call the country their own, and to carry our traders and trappers and send them into Canada; and never a word said by our people. Then they built fort after fort, till troops can march, and goods can go, with little or no trouble, from Quebec to New Orleans; and all that this produced was a speech from Governor Hamilton and a message from Governor Dinwiddie. The last indeed sent to England and made representation; but all he got was an order to repel force by force if he could, but to be quite sure that he did so on the undoubted territories of King George. Undoubted! Why, the French made the doubt, and then took advantage of it. Dinwiddie, however, had some spirit, and with what help he could get, he began to build a fort himself in the best chosen spot of the whole country, just by the meeting of the Ohio and the Monongahela. But he had only one man to the French ten, and not a regular company amongst them. So the French marched with a thousand soldiers and plenty of cannon and stores, turned his people out, took possession of his half finished fort and completed it themselves. That was not likely to make the Ingians respect us. Well, then Colonel Washington, the Virginian, and the best man in the land, built Fort Necessity; but they left him without forces to defend it, and he was obliged to surrender to Villiers and a force big enough to eat him up. That did not raise us with our redskins, and a French force never moved without a whole herd of Ingians, supposed to be in friendship with us, but ready to scalp us when we were defeated. Then came Braddock's mad march upon Fort Du Quesne, where he and almost all who were with him were killed by a handful of Ingians amongst the bushes--fifteen hundred men dispersed, killed and scalped by not four hundred savages--all the artillery taken and baggage beyond count--think of that! Then Shirley made a great parade of marching against Fort Niagara, but he turned back almost as soon as he set out; and had it not been for some good luck on the north side of Massachusetts Bay, and the victory of Johnson over Dieskau, you would not have had a tribe to hold fast to us. They were all wavering as fast as they could. I could see it as plain as possible from old Hendrick's talk; and the French Jesuits were in amongst them day and night to bring the Five Nations over. This was the year afore last. Well, what did they do last year? Nothing at all but lose Oswego. Lord Loudon and Abercrombie and Webb marched and countermarched and consulted and played the fool, while Montcalm was besieging Mercer, taking Oswego, breaking the terms he had expressly granted, and suffering his Ingians to scalp and torture his prisoners of war before his eyes. Well, this was just about the middle of August, but it was judged too late to do anything that year, and nothing was done. There was merry work in Albany, and people danced and sang; but the Ingians got a strange notion that the English lion was better at roaring than he was at biting. And now, Major, what have we done this year to make up for the blunders of the last five or six? Why, Lord Loudon stripped the whole of this province of its men and guns to go to Halifax and attack Louisburg. When he got to Halifax he exercised his men for a month, heard a false report that Louisburg was too strong and too well prepared to be taken, and sailed back to New York. In the meantime, Montcalm took Fort William Henry, on Lake George, and, as usual, let the garrison be butchered by the Ingians. So now the redskins see the English arms contemptible on every part of this continent, and the French complete masters of the lakes and the whole western country. The Five Nations see their Long House open to our enemies on three sides, and not a step taken to give them assistance or protection. We have abandoned them; can you expect them not to abandon us?"
The young officer, long before this painful question was asked, had leaned his elbow on the table and covered his eyes and part of his face with his hand. Walter and Edith both gazed at him earnestly, while their father bent his eyes gloomily down on the table--all three sympathizing with the feelings of a British officer while listening to such a detail. The expression they could not see, but the fine-cut ear appearing from beneath the curls of his hair glowed like fire before the speaker finished.
He did not answer, however, for more than a moment; but then raising his head, with a look of stern gravity he replied: "I cannot expect it. I cannot even understand how they have remained attached to us so long and so much."
"The influence of one man has done a great deal," replied Mr. Prevost. "Sir William Johnson is what is called the Indian agent, and whatever may be thought of his military ability, there can be no doubt that the Iroquois trust him, and love him more than they have ever trusted or loved a white man before. He is invariably just toward them; he always keeps his word with them; he never yields to importunity, or refuses to listen to reason; and he places that implicit confidence in them which enlists everything that is noble in the Indian character in his favor. Thus in his presence and in their dealings with him, they are quite a different people from what they are with others--all their fine qualities are brought into action, and all their wild passions are stilled."
"I should like to see them as they really are," said the young officer, eagerly; and then, turning to Woodchuck, he said: "You tell me you are going amongst them, my friend. Can you not take me with you?"
"Wait three days, and I will," replied the other. "I am first going up the Mohawk, as I told you, close by Sir William's castle and hall, as he calls the places. You'd see little there; but if you will promise to do just as I tell you, and take advice, I'll take you up to Sandy Hill and the creek, where you'll see enough of them. That will be arter I come back on Friday about noon."
Mr. Prevost looked at the young officer, and he at his entertainer, and then the former asked: "When will you bring him back, Captain? He must be here again by next Tuesday night."
"That he shall be, with or without his scalp," answered Woodchuck, with a laugh. "You get him ready to go; for you know, Prevost, the forest is not the parade ground."
"I will lend him my Gakaah and Giseha and Gostoweh," cried Walter. "We will make him quite an Indian."
"No! no!" answered Woodchuck. "That won't do, Walter. The man who tries to please an Ingian by acting like an Ingian, makes nought of it. They know it's a cheat, and they don't like it. We have our ways, they have theirs; and let each keep his own, like honest men. So I think, and so the Ingians think. Putting on a lion's skin will never make a man a lion. Get him some good, tough leggings, and a coat that won't tear, a rifle, and an axe, and a wood-knife--a bottle of brandy is no bad thing. But don't forget a calumet and a bunch of tobacco, for both may be needful. So now good-bye t'ye all. I must trot."
Thus saying, he rose from the table, and without more ceremonious adieu, left the room.