Chapter 21

"And long shall timorous fancy see
The painted chief and pointed spear;
And Reason's self shall bow the knee
To shadows and delusions here."

FRENEAU.

It is not necessary to dwell on the manner in which Herman Mordaunt and his
companions became established at Ravensnest. Two or three days sufficed to
render them as comfortable as circumstances would permit; then Dirck and I
bethought us of proceeding in quest of the lands of Mooseridge. Mr. Worden
and Jason both declined going any further; the mill-seat, of which the last
was in quest, being, as I now learned, on the estate of Herman Mordaunt,
and having been for some time the subject of a negotiation between the
pedagogue and its owner. As for the divine, he declared that he saw a
suitable 'field' for his missionary labour where he was; while, it was easy
to see, that he questioned if there were fields of any sort, where we were
going.

Our party, on quitting Ravensnest, consisted of Dirck and myself, Guert,
Mr. Traverse, the surveyor, three chain-bearers, Jaap or Yaap, Guert's man,
Pete, and one woodsman or hunter. This would have given us ten vigorous and
well-armed men, for our whole force. It was thought best, however, to add
two Indians to our number, in the double character of hunters and runners,
or messengers. One of these red-skins was called Jumper, in the language
of the settlement where we found them; and the other Trackless; the latter
_sobriquet_ having been given him on account of a faculty he possessed of
leaving little or no trail in his journeys and marches. This Indian was
about six-and-twenty years of age, and was called a Mohawk, living with the
people of that tribe; though, I subsequently ascertained that he was, in
fact, an Onondago [34] by birth. His true name was Susquesus, or Crooked
Turns; an appellation that might or might not speak well of his character,
as the Turns' were regarded in a moral, or in a physical sense.

"Take that man, Mr. Littlepage, by all means," said Herman Mordaunt's
agent, when the matter was under discussion. "You will find him as useful,
in the woods, as your pocket-compass, besides being a reasonably good
hunter. He left here, as a runner, during the heaviest of the snows, last
winter, and a trial was made to find his trail, within half an hour after
he had quitted the clearing, but without success. He had not gone a mile in
the woods, before all traces of him were lost, as completely as if he had
made the journey in the air."

As Susquesus had a reputation for sobriety, as was apt to be the case with
the Onondagoes, the man was engaged, though one Indian would have been
sufficient for our purpose. But Jumper had been previously hired; and it
would