Chapter 11 - Page 2

could come upon him at an unguarded
moment. Parties were sent out under old and vigilant officers, men
who cared little for the sports of the day, to scour the forest;
and one entire company held the fort, under arms, with orders to
maintain a vigilance as strict as if an enemy of superior force
was known to be near. With these precautions, the remainder of
the officers and men abandoned themselves, without apprehension,
to the business of the morning.

The spot selected for the sports was a sort of esplanade, a little
west of the fort, and on the immediate bank of the lake. It had been
cleared of its trees and stumps, that it might answer the purpose
of a parade-ground, as it possessed the advantages of having its
rear protected by the water, and one of its flanks by the works.
Men drilling on it could be attacked, consequently, on two sides
only; and as the cleared space beyond it, in the direction of the
west and south, was large, any assailants would be compelled to
quit the cover of the woods before they could make an approach
sufficiently near to render them dangerous.

Although the regular arms of the regiment were muskets, some fifty
rifles were produced on the present occasion. Every officer had
one as a part of his private provision for amusement; many belonged
to the scouts and friendly Indians, of whom more or less were
always hanging about the fort; and there was a public provision
of them for the use of those who followed the game with the express
object of obtaining supplies. Among those who carried the weapon
were some five or six, who had reputation for knowing how to use
it particularly well -- so well, indeed, as to have given them a
celebrity on the frontier; twice that number who were believed to
be much better than common; and many who would have been thought
expert in almost any situation but the precise one in which they
now happened to be placed.

The distance was a hundred yards, and the weapon was to be used
without a rest; the target, a board, with the customary circular
lines in white paint, having the bull's-eye in the centre. The
first trials in skill commenced with challenges among the more
ignoble of the competitors to display their steadiness and dexterity
in idle competition. None but the common men engaged in this
strife, which had little to interest the spectators, among whom no
officer had yet appeared.

Most of the soldiers were Scotch, the regiment having been raised
at Stirling and its vicinity not many years before, though, as in
the case of Sergeant Dunham, many Americans had joined it since its
arrival in the colonies. As a matter of course, the provincials
were generally the most expert marksmen; and after a desultory
trial of