 other
savage animals. It was our design to mount the headwaters of the Hudson, to the
neighbourhood of Crown Point, where the French had a strong place in the woods,
upon Lake Champlain. But to have done this directly were too perilous; and it
was accordingly gone upon by such a labyrinth of rivers, lakes, and portages as
makes my head giddy to remember. These paths were in ordinary times entirely
desert; but the country was now up, the tribes on the war-path, the woods full
of Indian scouts. Again and again we came upon these parties when we least
expected them; and one day, in particular, I shall never forget how, as dawn was
coming in, we were suddenly surrounded by five or six of these painted devils,
uttering a very dreary sort of cry, and brandishing their hatchets. It passed
off harmlessly, indeed, as did the rest of our encounters; for Chew was well
known and highly valued among the different tribes. Indeed, he was a very
gallant, respectable young man; but even with the advantage of his
companionship, you must not think these meetings were without sensible peril. To
prove friendship on our part, it was needful to draw upon our stock of rum -
indeed, under whatever disguise, that is the true business of the Indian trader,
to keep a travelling public-house in the forest; and when once the braves had
got their bottle of scaura (as they call this beastly liquor), it behoved us to
set forth and paddle for our scalps. Once they were a little drunk, good-bye to
any sense or decency; they had but the one thought, to get more scaura. They
might easily take it in their heads to give us chase, and had we been overtaken,
I had never written these memoirs.
    We were come to the most critical portion of our course, where we might
equally expect to fall into the hands of French or English, when a terrible
calamity befell us. Chew was taken suddenly sick with symptoms like those of
poison, and in the course of a few hours expired in the bottom of the canoe. We
thus lost at once our guide, our interpreter, our boatman, and our passport, for
he was all these in one; and found ourselves reduced, at a blow, to the most
desperate and irremediable distress. Chew, who took a great pride in his
knowledge, had indeed often lectured us on the geography; and Ballantrae, I
believe, would listen. But for my part I have always found such information
highly tedious
