Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

and the center by Captain D'Ell. The first night, they encamped on the banks of Clear River, about a mile from old Fort Ann, which had been formerly built by General Nicholson.

3. Next morning, Major Rogers and a British officer, named Irwin, incautiously suffered themselves, from a spirit of false emulation, to be engaged in firing at a mark. Nothing could have been more repugnant to the military principles of Putnam than such conduct, or reprobated by him in more pointed terms. 4. As soon as the heavy dew, which had fallen the preceding night, would permit, the detachment moved in one body, Putnam being in front, D'Ell in the center, and Rogers in the rear. The impervious growth of shrubs and underbrush that had sprung up, where the land had been partially cleared some years before, occasioned this change in the order of march.

5. At the moment of moving, the famous French partisan Molang, who had been sent with five hundred men to intercept our party, was not more than one mile and a half distant from them. Having heard the firing, he hastened to lay an ambuscade, precisely in that part of the wood most favorable to his project. Major Putnam was just emerging from the thicket into the common forest, when the enemy rose, and with discordant yells and hoops, commenced an attack upon the right of his division.

6. Surprised, but undismayed, Putnam halted, returned the fire, and passed the word for the other divisions to advance for his support. D'Ell came. The action, though widely scattered, and principally fought between man and man, soon grew general, and intensely warm. It would be as difficult as useless, to describe this irregular and ferocious mode of fighting.

7. Major Putnam, perceiving it would be impracticable to cross the creek, determined to maintain his ground. Inspired by his example, the officers and men behaved with great bravery: sometimes they fought aggregately in open view, and sometimes individually under cover; taking aim from behind the bodies of trees, and acting in a manner independent of each other.

8. For himself, having discharged his fusee several times, at length it missed fire, while the muzzle was pressed against the breast of a large and well-proportioned savage. This warrior, availing himself of the indefensible attitude of his adversary, with a tremendous war-hoop sprung forward, with his lifted hatchet, and compelled him to surrender; and having disarmed and bound him fast to a tree, returned to the battle.

9. The intrepid captains D'Ell and Harman, who now commanded, were forced to give ground for a little distance; the savages, conceiving this to be the certain harbinger of victory, rushed impetuously on, with dreadful and redoubled cries. But

our two partisans, collecting a handful of brave men, gave the pursuers so warm a reception, as to oblige them, in turn, to retreat a little beyond the spot at which the action had commenced. Here they made a stand.

10. This change of ground occasioned the tree, to which Putnam was tied, to be directly between the fire of the two parties. Human imagination can hardly figure to itself a more deplorable situation. The balls flew incessantly from each side, many struck the tree, while some passed through the sleeves and skirts of his coat. In this state of jeopardy, unable to move his body, to stir his limbs, or even to incline his head, he remained more than an hour. So equally balanced, and so obstinate, was the fight!

11. At one moment, while the battle swerved in favor of the enemy, a young savage chose an odd way of discovering his humor. He found Putnam bound. He might have dispatched him at a blow. But he loved better to excite the terrors of the prisoner, by hurling a tomahawk at his head,—or rather, it should seem, his object was to see how near he could throw it, without touching him,-the weapon struck in the tree a number of times, at a hair's breadth distance from the mark.

12. When the Indian had finished his amusement, a French officer, (a much more inveterate savage by nature, though descended from so humane and polished a nation,) perceiving Putnam, came up to him, and leveling a fusee within a foot of his breast, attempted to discharge it; it missed fire: ineffectually did the intended victim solicit the treatment due to his situation, by repeating that he was a prisoner of war.

13. The degenerate Frenchman did not understand the language of honor or of nature: deaf to their voice, and dead to sensibility, he violently and repeatedly pushed the muzzle of his gun against Putnam's ribs, and finally gave him a cruel blow on the jaw, with the but of his piece. After this dastardly deed, he left him.

14. At length, the active intrepidity of D'Ell and Harman, seconded by the persevering valor of their followers, prevailed. They drove from the field the enemy, who left about ninety dead behind them. As they were retiring, Putnam was untied by the Indian who had made him prisoner, and whom he afterwards called master,

15. Having been conducted for some distance from the place of action, he was stripped of his coat, vest, stockings and shoes; loaded with as many of the packs of the wounded as could be piled upon him; strongly pinioned, and his wrists tied as closely together as they could be pulled with a cord.

16. After he had marched, through no pleasant paths, in this painful manner, for many a tedious mile, the party (who were

excessively fatigued) halted to breathe. His hands were now immoderately swelled, from the tightness of the ligature; and the pain had become intolerable. His feet were so much scratched, that the blood dropped fast from them.

17. Exhausted with bearing a burden above his strength, and frantic with torments exquisite beyond endurance; he intreated the Irish interpreter to implore, as the last and only grace he desired of the savages, that they would knock him on the head, and take his scalp at once, or loose his hands.

18. A French officer, instantly interposing, ordered his hands to be unbound, and some of the packs to be taken off. By this time, the Indian who captured him, and had been absent with the wounded, coming up, gave him a pair of moccasons, and expressed great indignation at the unworthy treatment his prisoner had suffered.

19. That savage chief again returned to the care of the wounded; and the Indians, about two hundred in number, went before the rest of the party, to the place where the whole were that night to encamp. They took with them Major Putnam, on whom, (besides innumerable other outrages,) they had the barbarity to inflict a deep wound with a tomahawk, in the left cheek.

20. His sufferings were in this place to be consummated. A scene of horror, infinitely greater than had ever met his eyes before, was now preparing. It was determined to roast him alive. For this purpose, they led him into a dark forest, stripped him naked, bound him to a tree, and piled dry brush, with other fuel, at a small distance in a circle round him.

21. They accompanied their labors, as if for his funeral dirge, with screams and sounds, inimitable but by savage voices. Then they set the piles on fire. A sudden shower damped the rising flame. Still they strove to kindle it, until, at last, the blaze ran fiercely round the circle. Major Putnam soon began to feel the scorching heat. His hands were so tied, that he could move his body. He often shifted sides, as the fire approached.

22. This sight, at the very idea of which, all but savages must shudder, afforded the highest diversion to his inhuman tormentors, who demonstrated the delirium of their joy, by correspondent yells, dances and gesticulations. He saw clearly that his final hour was inevitably come. He summoned all his resolution, and composed his mind, as far as the circumstances could admit, to bid an eternal farewell to all he held most dear.

23. To quit the world, would scarcely have cost a single pang, but for the idea of home,-but for the remembrance of domestic endearments, of the affectionate partner of his soul, and of their beloved offspring. His thought was ultimately fixed on a happier state of existence, beyond the tortures he was beginning to endure.

24. The bitterness of death, even of that death which is accompanied with the keenest agonies, was in a manner past,--nature, with a feeble struggle, was quitting its last hold on sublunary things, when a French officer rushed through the crowd, opened a way, by scattering the burning brands, and unbound the victim. It was Molang himself, to whom a savage, unwilling to see another human sacrifice immolated, had run and communicated the tidings.

25. That commandant spurned and severely reprimanded the barbarians, whose nocturnal powows he suddenly ended. Putnam did not want for feeling or gratitude. The French commander, fearing to trust him alone with them, remained until he could deliver him in safety into the hands of his master.

26. The savage approached his prisoner kindly, and seemed to treat him with particular affection. He offered him some hard biscuits, but finding that he could not chew them, on account of the blow he had received from the Frenchman, this more humane savage soaked some of the biscuit in water, and made him suck the pulp-like paste.

27. Determined, however, not to lose his captive, (the refreshment being finished,) he took the moccasons from his feet, and tied them to one of his wrists; then directing him to lie down on his back, upon the bare ground, he stretched one arm to its full length, and bound it fast to a young tree; the other arm was extended and bound in the same manner, his legs were stretched apart, and fastened to two saplings.

[ocr errors]

28. Then a number of tall but slender poles were cut down; which, with some long bushes, were laid across his body from head to foot: on each side lay as many Indians as could conveniently find lodging, in order to prevent the possibility of his escape. In this disagreeable and painful posture he remained until morning.

29. During this night, the longest and most dreary conceivable, our hero used to relate, that he felt a ray of cheerfulness come casually across his mind, and could not even refrain from smiling, when he reflected on this ludicrous group for a painter, of which he himself was the principal figure.

30. The next day he was allowed his blanket and moccasons, and permitted to march without carrying any pack, or receiving any insult. To allay his extreme hunger, a little bear's meat was given, which he sucked through his teeth. At night the party arrived at Ticonderoga, and the prisoner was placed under the care of a French guard.

31. The savages, who had been prevented from glutting their diabolical thirst for blood, took every opportunity of manifesting their malevolence for the disappointment, by horrid grimaces

and angry gestures; but they were suffered no more to offer him violence or personal indignity.

32. After having been examined by the Marquis de Montcalm, Major Putnam was conducted to Montreal by a French officer, who treated him with the greatest indulgence and humanity.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE FAITHFUL AMERICAN DOG.

1. An officer in the late American army, on his station at the westward, went out in the morning with his dog and gun, in quest of game. Venturing too far from the garrison, he was fired upon by an Indian, who was lurking in the bushes, and instantly fell to the ground.

2. The Indian running to him, struck him on the head with his tomahawk, in order to dispatch him; but the button of his hat fortunately warding off the edge, he was only stunned by the blow. With savage brutality, he applied the scalping-knife, and hastened away with this trophy of his horrid cruelty, leaving the officer for dead, and none to relieve or console him, but his faithful dog.

3. The afflicted creature gave every expression of attachment, fidelity and affection. He licked the wounds with inexpressible tenderness, and mourned the fate of his beloved master. Having performed every office which sympathy dictated, or sagacity could invent, without being able to remove his master from the fatal spot, or procure from him any signs of life, or his wonted expressions of affection to him, he ran off in quest of help.

4. Bending his course towards the river, where two men were fishing, he urged them, by all the powers of native rhetoric, to accompany him to the woods. The men were suspicious of a decoy to an ambuscade, and durst not venture to follow him. The dog finding all his caresses fail, returned to the care of his master; and, licking his wounds a second time, renewed all his tenderness; but with no better success than before.

5. Again he returned to the men, once more to try his skill in alluring them to his assistance. In this attempt he was more successful than in the other. The men, seeing his solicitude, began to think the dog might have discovered some valuable game, and determined to hazard the consequences of following

him.

6. Transported with his success, the affectionate_creature harried them along by every expression of ardor. Presently they arrived at the spot, where, behold,-an officer wounded,

« AnteriorContinua »