University of Virginia Library

5. CHAPTER V.

“Our flotilla consisted of three boats, two
of them of very large size, and somewhat
overburthened with goods and cattle. That
in which I was stationed, being the flag-ship,
in which Colonel Storm commanded in person,
was somewhat smaller than the others,
not so heavily laden, and in all respects better
fitted out—a superiority which it doubtless
owed to the presence of the fair Alicia,
his daughter. It contained, besides the usual
cabin for the shelter of the crew, a smaller
one set apart for the use of the Colonel's
daughter—a sanctuary which none had the
privilege of entering, save the commander
himself, the lady's female attendants, and,
sometimes, the gallant Captain Sharpe. The

horses were divided between the larger boats;
in fact, every thing on board of the commander's
boat seemed to have been arranged
with a view to detract as little as possible from
his daughter's comfort. The very crew
seemed to have been selected with an eye to
her approbation, consisting, besides four of
the Colonel's oldest and most faithful negroes,
of ten men, the soberest and best behaved of
all his engagés. There were nineteen souls
in all on board the boat—Colonel Storm, his
daughter and two female servants, Captain
Sharpe, and the fourteen men as above mentioned.

“I was surprised, and somewhat disconcerted,
to find that my friend Connor was not
in the Colonel's boat; but reflecting that the
latter had not yet entirely recovered from his
gout, and was, indeed, as fretful and irascible
as man could be, I thought in my heart
that the younker had shown his good sense
by entering, as I did not doubt he had done,
one of the other boats. What was my astonishment
to learn, which I did towards the
close of the day, that Connor was not with
the party at all—that he had left the Colonel's
service—nay, that he had been ignominiously
driven from it, in consequence of a

rupture with his patron on the preceding day.
This I learned from some of the men whom
I heard whispering the matter over among
themselves, but who were too little informed
on the subject to be able to acquaint me with
all the particulars. It seemed, however, that
the quarrel had, in some way, grown out of a
dispute the secretary had had with Captain
Sharpe, in the course of which swords had
been drawn between them; though what had
so embittered these doughty champions
against one another, no one pretended to
say. All the men knew was, that the blame
was thrown upon Connor—that Colonel
Storm had taken part against him, and immediately
turned him adrift; since which, nothing
had been heard of him by any of the
party.

“This intelligence filled me with concern;
and such was my affection for the young man,
who I was sure (without knowing any thing
about it) had been harshly and unjustly treated
that I was, for a time, more than half inclined
to jump ashore, and return to Pittsburg, for the
purpose of seeking him out and offering him
my services. But, having mentioned the design
to some of my comrades, they gave me so
dismal an account of the difficulties and dangers

from Indians, which, even at so short a
distance from Pittsburg, I should encounter
in making my way along the river, that I was
frighted out of my purpose, and determined,
although reluctantly to remain where I was.

“As the young man's misadventure arose
from his quarrel with Captain Sharpe, I contracted,
from that moment, a strong dislike to
the latter, who, it appeared to me, had ousted
Connor, only to step into his shoes—to take
his place in the affections of the grum old
Colonel, and, for aught I could tell, in those
of his daughter too. I still could not give
my belief to the stories told me of Captain
Sharpe by his servant; it seemed impossible
such things should be true of so elegant a
gentleman. Nevertheless, I bore them in mind,
resolved, if it should appear that Captain
Sharpe was actually making love to the fair
Alicia, to make her parent fully acquainted
with them.

“In this, I must confess, I had in view the
mortification of Captain Sharpe, rather than
the advantage of the Colonel's daughter, for
whom I felt, at first, no very friendly regard.
I remembered her haughty and scornful looks
at the ball, which I had not yet entirely forgiven;
and my disgrace and discomfiture on

that occasion, I considered as entirely owing
to her. Besides, as I was now conscious of
the distance fate had placed between us, I
was, at the beginning of the voyage, in continual
fear, lest she should recognise me and
make me the butt of her ridicule; an apprehension,
however, I soon ceased to entertain,
being satisfied she had quite forgotten me.

“I will here add, that my dislike to the
young lady wore, of itself, rapidly away; for,
first, it was impossible I should indulge ill will
against a creature so young and lovely; and,
secondly, I perceived there was something on
her mind that rendered her unhappy—something
made visible on her face by a sadness
that seemed to me to grow deeper day by
day. I fancied the cause might be regret for
the absence and misfortunes of Connor; a
conceit that wonderfully raised her in my esteem.

“It happened, at the time when we began
our voyage, that the river had fallen for the
season unusually low; so that some of the
knowing persons in Pittsburg, considering the
size and weight of the Colonel's boats, had
advised him to wait for a rise of the waters;
a piece of advice of which he took no notice,
though other emigrants who were ready

to depart, postponed their voyage accordingly.

“We were not long in discovering that
we gained little but trouble by being in a
hurry; for, besides that we got along but slowly,
and with hard rowing, in consequence of
the gentle current, we were perpetually driving
aground, some one boat or the other, upon
bars, and sandbanks, from which it was a
work of time and labour to escape. Indeed,
one of the boats we found it impossible to
get from a bar, on which she had grounded
some dozen miles or so above Wheeling; and
as, from her proximity to this settlement, and
her position in the middle of the river, it was
not thought she was in any danger from the
savages, the crew consented to remain in her,
waiting for a flood, and also for the fleet it
was expected to bring down from Pittsburg,
with which they were to descend the river.
We of the other boats, sick of our labours at
the oar, rather envied the happy dogs whom
we left taking their ease on the bar, with the
prospect, in a few days, of resuming their
voyage, borne along by the swelling current,
without any toil of their own: nevertheless
these happy personages, as we afterwards
discovered, were, two nights after we left

them, set upon by savages where they lay;
and not one of them escaped to tell the story
of their fate.

“Nor was that our only loss. Two nights
after—perhaps at the very moment when our
friends of the stranded boat were dying under
the axes of their Indian assailants—the remaining
large boat ran upon a snag, by which
she was rendered a complete wreck, and we
were compelled to abandon her. It was only
by the greatest exertions we were so fortunate
as to rescue the more valuable portions
of her cargo, including two of the Colonel's
finest horses, which we succeeded in transferring
to our own boat: the others we left to
their fate, after knocking away the side of
the boat, and driving them into the river,
whence they all swam to the shore, and
doubtless soon found Indian masters. The
crew, consisting of thirteen persons, was added
to our own, which was thus increased to
thirty-two souls—a number so greatly disproportioned
to the size of our boat, that they
were not received without the greatest inconvenience.
But this we cared for the less, as
we expected soon to reach the new settlement
of Marietta, at the mouth of the Muskingum,
where it was intended to put some of our superfluous

men ashore, to wait for the boat
we had left behind.

“We reached Marietta the next day, and
got rid of eight of the wrecked crew, retaining
five, of whom two were slaves belonging
to our commander in chief, the others engagés.
Remaining at Marietta during the night,
we set out next morning under what might
have been considered favourable auspices.
The most important of these was a sudden
swell of the river, which rose several feet
in the night, and was still rapidly rising,
when we cast off from the shore. We had
thus a prospect of making our way by the
mere force of the current, and so escaping,
for the remainder of the voyage, the drudgery
of the oar; besides clearing all rifts and sandbars,
of which we had already had experience
more than enough. We set out, moreover,
with such a crew as might be supposed to
secure us a perfect exemption from Indian
attacks—thirteen engagés, all well armed,
and acquainted with arms, though no more
than one of them had ever faced an Indian
in battle; together with five able-bodied negro
men, whom the Colonel had provided
with muskets, and who could doubtless use
them after some fashion; not to speak of the

Colonel himself, who was too gouty for active
service, and Captain Sharpe, who, we had
no doubt, would fight when the time came,
though, at present, as it appeared, more
earnestly bent upon making himself agreeable
to the commander's daughter than upon
preparing for war.

With a military commander on board,
(though sorely incapacitated for command,)
it may be supposed, our forces were organized
upon somewhat a military foundation.
We were, at least divided into watches, each
of which under its captain, appointed by Colonel
Storm, had its regular turn of duty, both
by day and by night.