HONNYMAN. Silence; conceal yourself, and mind your Eye. ORSBOURN. Are you well charg❜d? HONNYMAN. I am. Take you the nearest, And mind to fire exactly when I do. ORSBOURN. A charming Chance! HONNYMAN. Hush, let them still come nearer. [They shoot, and run to rifle the Indians.] They're down, old Boy, a Brace of noble Bucks! ORSBOURN. Well tallow'd, faith, and noble Hides upon 'em. [Taking up a Pack.] We might have hunted all the Season thro' For Half this Game, and thought ourselves well paid. Or their blood-thirsty Countrymen will find them, They'll murder us, and cheat the Hangman too. ORSBOURN. Right. We'll prevent all Mischief of this Kind. Where shall we hide their savage Carcases? HONNYMAN. There they will lie conceal'd and snug enough [They cover them.] But stay-perhaps ere long there'll be a War, And then their Scalps will sell for ready Cash, Two Hundred Crowns at least, and that's worth saving. ORSBOURN. Well! That is true, no sooner said than [Drawing his knife.] done I'll strip this Fellow's painted greasy Skull. [Strips off the scalp.] HONNYMAN. A Damn'd tough Hide, or my Knife's devil ish dull [Takes the other scalp.] Now let them sleep to Night without their Caps, And pleasant Dreams attend their long Repose. ORSBOURN. Their Guns and Hatchets now are lawful Prize, For they'll not need them on their present Journey. HONNYMAN. The Devil hates Arms, and dreads the smell of Powder; He'll not allow such Instruments about him, They're free from training now, they're in his Clutches. ORSBOURN. But, Honnyman, d'ye think this is not Murder? I vow I'm shocked a little to see them scalp'd, And fear their Ghosts will haunt us in the Dark. HONNYMAN. It's no more Murder than to crack a Louse,' That is, if you've the Wit to keep it private. And as to Haunting, Indians have no Ghosts, But as they live like Beasts, like Beasts they die. I've killed a dozen in this self-same Way, And never yet was troubled with their Spirits. ORSBOURN. Then I'm content; my Scruples are remov❜d. And what I've done, my conscience justifies. But we must have these Guns and Hatchets alter'd, 10 10 "Twenty Indians have been murdered near here in a treacherous manner within the last six months. A young fellow executed lately for two unparalleled murders declared on the gallows that he thought it a meritorious act to kill heathen wherever they were found; and this seems to be the opinion of all the common people." Johnson in Documentary History of New York, VII, 852. HONNYMAN. That's quickly done-Let us with Speed re turn, And think no more of being hang'd or haunted; And bless the first Inventor of a Gun. CHAPTER IX PONTIAC N view of the conditions already outlined, and the IN direct connection of the Mackinac and entire Great Lakes country with the transition from French to British control, intense interest attaches to the personality and activities of Pontiac. "Such being the causes of disaffection, and such the motives still remaining with the French to encourage Indian hostilities," says Mr. Hough, "there was wanting only a leader around whom to rally and upon whom to rely for direction and counsel, and such a chieftain was found in the person of Pontiac." The way was largely prepared for Pontiac, and the degree of success which he reached was largely a resultant of the forces tending to bind the Indians as a unit in a vast program of revenge, ambition and patriotism. Yet without the organizing genius of Pontiac to give method and order to those energies, there would doubtless have issued little else than a series of wild but futile bursts of fury against the outlying settlements. "Pontiac," says Cooley, in his Michigan,1 "was one of those rare characters among the Indians whose merits are so transcendent that, without the aid of adventitious circumstances, they take by common consent the leadership in peace and the leadership in war. In battle he had shown his courage, in council his eloquence, and his wisdom; he was wary in planning and indefatigable in execution; his 1 Michigan, Thomas M. Cooley, p. 54. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., Boston. patriotism was ardent and his ambition boundless, and he was at this time in all the region between the head-waters of the Ohio and the distant Mississippi the most conspicuous figure among the savage tribes, and the predestined leader in any undertaking which should enlist the general in Not only by birth had Pontiac become the principal chief of the Ottawas, but by merit as well. By merit he had gained a powerful influence over almost all the tribes of the Algonquin stock, and to some extent over the Iroquois. At this time he was about fifty years old. He had been all his life a warm friend of the French, but his decision in the conference with Major Rogers seems to point to his willingness to sacrifice their ascendancy if it might aid his own people, and his own ambitions as their leader. "Up to this time," says Rev. Norman B. Wood," "Pontiac had been in word and deed the fast friend and ally of the French, but it is easy to discern the motives that impelled him to renounce his old adherence. The American forests never produced a man more shrewd, politic and ambitious. Ignorant as he was of what was passing in the world he could clearly see that the French power was on the wane, and he knew his own interest too well to prop a falling cause. By making friends of the English he hoped to gain powerful allies, who would aid his ambitious projects, and give him an increased influence over the tribes; and he flattered himself that the newcomers would treat him with the same studied respect which the French had always observed. In this and all his other expectations of advantage from the English, he was doomed to disappointment." 2 Lives of Famous Indian Chiefs. American Indian Historical Pub. Co., Aurora, Ill. |