more terrible. Towards the middle
of the day, she fancied she saw a white man on the island, though his dress and
wild appearance at first made her take him for a newly arrived savage. A view of
his face, although it was swarthy naturally, and much darkened by exposure, left
no doubt that her conjecture was true, and she felt as if there was now one of a
species more like her own present, and one to whom she might appeal for succor,
in the last emergency. Mabel little knew, alas! how small was the influence
exercised by the whites over their savage allies, when the latter had begun to
taste of blood, or how slight, indeed, was the disposition to divert them from
their cruelties.
    The day seemed a month by Mabel's computation, and the only part of it that
did not drag, were the minutes spent in prayer. She had recourse to this relief,
from time to time, and at each effort she found her spirit firmer, her mind more
tranquil, and her tendency to resignation more confirmed. She understood the
reasoning of June, and believed it highly probable, that the block-house would
be left unmolested, until the return of her father, in order to entice him into
an ambuscade, and she felt much less apprehension of immediate danger in
consequence; but the future offered little grounds of hope, and her thoughts had
already begun to calculate the chances of her captivity. At such moments,
Arrowhead and his offensive admiration, filled a prominent part in the
background, for our heroine well knew that the Indians usually carried off to
their villages, for the purposes of adoption, such captives as they did not
slay, and that many instances had occurred, in which individuals of her sex had
passed the remainder of their lives in the wigwams of their conquerors. Such
thoughts as these, invariably drove her to her knees, and to her prayers.
    While the light lasted, the situation of our heroine was sufficiently
alarming, but as the shades of evening gradually gathered over the island, it
became fearfully appalling. By this time, the savages had wrought themselves up
to the point of fury, for they had possessed themselves of all the liquor of the
English, and their outcries and gesticulations were those of men truly possessed
of evil spirits. All the efforts of their French leader to restrain them, were
entirely fruitless, and he had wisely withdrawn to an adjacent island, where he
had a sort of bivouac, that he might keep at a safe distance from friends so apt
to run into excesses. Before