Chapter 27 - Page 2

stubs, log-heaps, brush, and all
the other unseemly accompaniments of the first eight or ten years of the
existence of a new settlement. This period, in the history of a country,
may be likened to the hobbledehoy condition in ourselves, when we have lost
the graces of childhood, without having attained the finished forms of men.

Herman Mordaunt's settlement would have been thought a strong country, in
one sense, for a field fight, had there been men enough to contend with a
hostile party of any force. But, I had heard him say that he had but about
seventeen rifles and muskets that could be in the least relied on, inasmuch
as some of his people were Europeans, and had no knowledge of fire-arms,
while experience had shown that others, on the occurrence of an alarm,
invariably fled to the woods, with their families, instead of rallying
around the settlement colours. Such delinquencies usually take place, I
believe, on all emergencies; love of life being even a stronger instinct
than love of property. Here and there a sturdy fellow, however, would bar
himself in, with a determination to go for the whole, under his own bark
roof; and, occasionally, defences were made that would do credit to a hero.

It should be apparent to those who have any accurate notion of savage
warfare, that the ravine, being, as it was, the only wooded spot near
Herman Mordaunt's fortress, would be the place of all others most likely to
contain an enemy who made his approaches against a garrison, by means of
natural facilities alone. We were aware of this; and Guert, who took an
active command among us, as we drew near to danger, issued his commands for
every man to be on the alert, in order that there might be no confusion.
We were instructed as to the manner of proceeding the moment an alarm was
given; and Guert, who was a capital mimic, had previously taught us several
calls and rallying signals, all of which were good imitations of the cries
of different tenants of the woods, principally birds. These signals had
their origin with the red-man, who often resorted to them, and were said to
be more successfully practised by our own hunters and riflemen than even by
those with whom they originated.

On entering the ravine, the order of our march was changed. While Susquesus
and Jumper were still kept in advance, Guert, Dirck, Jaap and myself moved
abreast, and quite close together. The density of the foliage, and the deep
obscurity that prevailed in the bottom of this dell-like hollow, rendered
this precaution necessary. It soon became so dark, indeed, that our only
guide was the brook that gurgled along the bottom of the ravine, and which
we knew issued into the open ground at its termination, to join a small
river that meandered through