 | CHAPTER I. The wept of Wish-ton-Wish |  |
1. CHAPTER I.
“Come hither, neighbor Sea-coal—God hath blessed you with
a good name: to be a well-favored man is the gift of fortune; but
to write and read comes by Nature.”
Much ado about Nothing.
IT has already been said, that the hour at which
the action of the tale must re-commence, was early
morning. The usual coolness of night, in a country
extensively covered with wood, had passed, and the
warmth of a summer morning, in that low latitude,
was causing the streaks of light vapor, that floated
about the meadows, to rise above the trees. The
feathery patches united to form a cloud that sailed
away towards the summit of a distant mountain,
which appeared to be a common rendezvous for
all the mists that had been generated by the past
hours of darkness.
Though the burnished sky announced his near
approach, the sun was not yet visible. Notwithstanding
the earliness of the hour, a man was
already mounting a little ascent in the road, at no
great distance from the southern entrance of the
hamlet, and at a point where he could command a
view of all the objects described in the preceding
chapter. A musket thrown across his left shoulder,
with the horn and pouch at his sides, together with
the little wallet at his back, proclaimed him one
who had either been engaged in a hunt, or in some
His dress was of the usual material and fashion of
a countryman of the age and colony, though a short
broadsword, that was thrust through a wampum
belt which girded his body, might have attracted
observation. In all other respects, he had the air
of an inhabitant of the hamlet, who had found occasion
to quit his abode on some affair of pleasure
or of duty, that had made no very serious demand
on his time.
Whether native or stranger, few ever passed the
hillock named, without pausing to gaze at the quiet
loveliness of the cluster of houses that lay in full
view from its summit. The individual mentioned
loitered as usual, but, instead of following the line
of the path, his eye rather sought some object in
the direction of the fields. Moving leisurely to the
nearest fence, he threw down the upper rails of
a pair of bars, and beckoned to a horseman, who
was picking his way across a broken bit of pasture
land, to enter the highway by the passage he had
opened.
“Put the spur smartly into the pacer's flank,”
said he who had done this act of civility, observing
that the other hesitated to urge his beast across
the irregular and somewhat scattered pile; “my
word for it, the jade goes over them all, without
touching with more than three of her four feet.
Fie, doctor! there is never a cow in the Wish-Ton-Wish,
but it would take the leap to be in the first
at the milking.”
“Softly, Ensign;” returned the timid equestrian,
laying the emphasis on the final syllable of his companion's
title, and pronouncing the first as if it were
spelt with the third instead of the second vowel.
“Thy courage is meet for one set apart for deeds
of valor, but it would be a sorrowful day when the
ailing of the valley should knock at my door, and a
Thy efforts will not avail thee, man; for the
mare hath had schooling, as well as her master. I
have trained the beast to methodical habits, and
she hath come to have a rooted dislike to all irregularities
of movement. So, cease tugging at the
rein, as if thou wouldst compel her to pass the pile
in spite of her teeth, and throw down the upper
bar altogether.”
“A doctor in these rugged parts should be mounted
on one of those ambling birds of which we read,”
said the other, removing the obstacle to the secure
passage of his friend; “for truly a journey at night,
in the paths of these clearings, is not always as safe
moving as that which is said to be enjoyed by the
settlers nearer sea.”
“And where hast found mention of a bird of a
size and velocity fit to be the bearer of the weight
of a man?” demanded he who was mounted, with
a vivacity that betrayed some jealousy on the subject
of a monopoly of learning. “I had thought
there was never a book in the valley, out of mine
own closet, that dealeth in these abstrusities!”
“Dost think the scriptures are strangers to us?
There—thou art now in the public path, and thy
journey is without danger. It is matter of marvel
to many in this settlement, how thou movest about
at midnight, amongst upturned roots of trees, holes,
logs and stumps, without falling—”
“I have told thee, Ensign, it is by virtue of much
training given to the beast. Certain am I, that
neither whip nor spur would compel the animal to
pass the bounds of discretion. Often have I travelled
this bridle-path, without fear as in truth without
danger, when sight was a sense of as little use as
that of smelling.”
“I was about to say, falling into thine own hands,
even that of the wicked spirits.”
The medical man affected to laugh at his companion's
joke; but, remembering the dignity suited
to one of his calling, he immediately resumed the
discourse with gravity—
“These may be matters of levity, with those
who know little of the hardships that are endured
in the practice of the settlements. Here have I
been on yonder mountain, guided by the instinct of
my horse—”
“Ha! hath there been a call at the dwelling of
my brother Ring?” demanded the pedestrain, observing,
by the direction of the other's eye, the road
he had been travelling.
“Truly, there hath; and at the unseasonable
hour that is wont, in a very unreasonable proportion
of the cases of my practice.”
“And Reuben numbereth another boy to the four
that he could yesterday?”
The medical man held up three of his fingers, in
a significant manner, as he nodded assent.
“This putteth Faith something in arrears,” returned
he who has been called Ensign, and who
was no other than the reader's old acquaintance
Eben Dudley, preferred to that station in the train-band
of the valley. “The heart of my brother
Reuben will be gladdened by these tidings, when
he shall return from the scout.”
“There will be occasion for thankfulness, since
he will find seven beneath a roof where he left but
four!”
“I will close the bargain with the young captain
for the mountain lot, this very day!” muttered
Dudley, like one suddenly convinced of the prudence
of a long-debated measure. “Seven pounds of the
colony money is no usurer's price, after all, for a
hundred acres of heavily-timbered land; and they
at a time!”
The equestrain stopped his horse, and regarding
his companion intently and with a significant air,
he answered—
“Thou hast now fallen on the clue of an important
mystery, Ensign Dudley. This continent was
created with a design. The fact is apparent by its
riches, its climate, its magnitude, its facilities of
navigation, and chiefly in that it hath been left undiscovered
until the advanced condition of society
hath given opportunity and encouragement to men
of a certain degree of merit, to adventure in its
behalf. Consider, neighbor, the wonderful progress
it hath already made in the arts and in learning, in
reputation and in resources, and thou wilt agree
with me in the conclusion that all this hath been
done with a design.”
“'Twould be presuming to doubt it; for he hath
indeed a short memory, to whom it shall be necessary
to recall the time when this very valley was
little other than a den for beasts of prey, and this
beaten highway, a deer-track. Dost think that
Reuben will be like to raise the whole of the recent
gift?”
“With judgment, and by the blessing of Providence.
The mind is active, Ensign Dudley, when
the body is journeying among the forests; and much
have my thoughts been exercised in this matter,
whilst thou and others have been in your slumbers.
Here have we the colonies in their first century,
and yet thou knowest to what a pass of improvement
they have arrived. They tell me the Hartford settlement
is getting to be apportioned like the towns
of mother England, that there is reason to think
the day may come when the provinces shall have
a power, and a convenience of culture and communication,
parts of the venerable island itself!”
“Nay, nay, Doctor Ergot,” returned the other
with an incredulous smile, “that is exceeding the
bounds of a discretionable expectation.”
“Thou wilt remember that I said equalling to
certain parts. I think we may justly imagine, that
ere many centuries shall elapse, there may be millions
counted in these regions, and truly that, too,
where one seeth nought, at present, but the savage
and the beast.”
“I will go with any man, in this question, as far
as reason will justify; but doubtless thou hast read
in the books uttered by writers over sea, the matters
concerning the condition of those countries, wherein
it is plain that we may never hope to reach the exalted
excellence they enjoy.”
“Neighbor Dudley, thou seemest disposed to push
an unguarded expression to extremity. I said equalling
certain parts, meaning always, too, in certain
things. Now it is known in philosophy, that the
stature of man hath degenerated, and must degenerate
in these regions, in obedience to established
laws of nature; therefore it is meet that allowance
should be made for some deficiency in less material
qualities.”
“It is like, then, that the better sort of the men
over sea are ill-disposed to quit their country,” returned
the Ensign, glancing an eye of some unbelief
along the muscular proportions of his own vigorous
frame. “We have no less than three from the old
countries in our village, here, and yet I do not find
them men like to have been sought for at the building
of Babel.”
“This is settling a knotty and learned point by
the evidence of a few shallow exceptions. I presume
to tell you, Ensign Dudley, that the science,
and wisdom, and philosophy of Europe, have been
proved to their own perfect satisfaction, which is
the same thing as disposing of the question without
appeal, that man and beast, plant and tree, hill and
dale, lake and pond, sun, air, fire and water, are all
wanting in some of the perfectness of the older
regions. I respect a patriotic sentiment, and can
carry the disposition to applaud the bounties received
from the hands of a beneficent Creator as far as
any man; but that which hath been demonstrated
by science, or collected by learning, is placed too
far beyond the objections of lightly-minded cavillers,
to be doubted by graver faculties.”
“I shall not contend against things that are
proven,” returned Dudley, who was quite as meek
in discussion as he was powerful and active in more
physical contests; “since it needs be that the learning
of men in the old countries must have an exceeding
excellence, in virtue of its great age. It
would be a visit to remember, should some of its
rare advantages be dispersed in these our own
youthful regions!”
“And can it be said that our mental wants have
been forgotten—that the nakedness of the mind
hath been suffered to go without its comely vestment,
neighbor Dudley? To me, it seemeth, that therein
we have unwonted reason to rejoice, and that the
equilibrium of nature is in a manner restored by
the healing exercises of art. It is unseemly in an
unenlightened province, to insist on qualities that
have been discreetly disproven; but learning is a
transferable and communicable gift, and it is meet
to affirm that it is to be found here, in quantities
adapted to the wants of the colony.”
“I'll not gainsay it, for having been more of an
adventurer in the forest than one who hath travelled
in quest of sights among the settlements along
the sea-shore, it may happen that many things are
formed no opinion.”
“And are we utterly unenlightened, even in this
distant valley, Ensign?” returned the leech, leaning
over the neck of his horse, and addressing his companion
in a mild and persuasive tone, that he had
probably acquired in his extensive practice among
the females of the settlement. “Are we to be classed
with the heathen in knowledge, or to be accounted
as the unnurtured men who are known once to
have roamed through these forests in quest of their
game? Without assuming any infallibility of judgment,
or aspiring to any peculiarity of information,
it doth not appear to my defective understanding,
Master Dudley, that the progress of the settlement
hath ever been checked for want of necessary fore-sight,
nor that the growth of reason among us hath
ever been stunted from any lack of mental aliment.
Our councils are not barren of wisdom, Ensign, nor
hath it often arrived that abstrusities have been
propounded, that some one intellect, to say no more
in our own favor, hath not been known to grapple
with, successfully.”
“That there are men, or perhaps I ought to say
that there is a man, in the valley, who is equal to
many marvels in the way of enlightened gifts—”
“I knew we should come to peaceable conclusions,
Ensign Dudley,” interrupted the other, rising erect
in his saddle, with an air of appeased dignity; “for
I have ever found you a discreet and consequent
reasoner, and one who is never known to resist conviction,
when truth is pressed with understanding.
That the men from over sea are not often so well
gifted as some—we will say, for the sake of a convenient
illustration, as thyself, Ensign—is placed
beyond the reach of debate, since sight teacheth us
that numberless exceptions may be found to all the
we are not likely to carry our disagreement further?”
“It is impossible to make head against one so
ready with his knowledge,” returned the other, well
content to exist in his own person a striking exception
to the inferiority of his fellows; “though it
appeareth to me that my brother Ring might be
chosen, as another instance of a reasonable stature;
a fact that thou mayst see, Doctor, by regarding
him as he approaches through yon meadow. He
hath been, like myself, on the scout among the
mountains.”
“There are many instances of physical merit
among thy connexions, Master Dudley,” returned
the complaisant physician; “though it would seem
that thy brother hath not found his companion among
them. He is attended by an ill-grown, and, it may
be added, an ill-favored comrade, that I know not.”
“Ha! It would seem that Reuben hath fallen on
the trail of savages! The man in company is certainly
in paint and blanket. It may be well to
pause at yonder opening, and await their coming.”
As this proposition imposed no particular inconvenience,
the Doctor readily assented. The two drew
nigh to the place where the men, whom they saw
crossing the fields in the distance, were expected to
enter the highway.
But little time was lost in attendance. Ere many
minutes had elapsed, Reuben Ring, accoutred and
armed like the borderer already introduced in this
chapter, arrived at the opening, followed by the
stranger whose appearance had caused so much
surprise to those who watched their approach.
“What now, Sergeant,” exclaimed Dudley, when
the other was within ear-shot, speaking a little in
the manner of one who had legal right to propound
his questions; “hast fallen on a trial of the savage,
and made a captive? or hath some owl permitted
“I believe the creature may be accounted a man,”
returned the successful Reuben, throwing the breech
of his gun to the earth, and leaning on its long barrel,
while he intently regarded the half-painted,
vacant, and extremely equivocal countenance of
his captive. “He hath the colors of a Narragansett
about the brow and eyes, and yet he faileth greatly
in the form and movements.”
“There are anomalies in the physicals of an Indian,
as in those of other men,” interrupted Doctor
Ergot, with a meaning glance at Dudley. “The
conclusion of our neighbor Ring may be too hasty,
since paint is the fruit of art, and may be applied
to any of our faces, after an established usage. But
the evidences of nature are far less to be distrusted.
It hath come within the province of my studies, to
note the differences in formation which occur in the
different families of man; and nothing is more readily
to be known, to an eye skilled in these abstrusities,
than the aboriginal of the tribe Narragansett.
Set the man more in a position of examination,
neighbors, and it shall shortly be seen to which race
he belongs. Thou wilt note in this little facility of
investigation, Ensign, a clear evidence of most of
the matters that have this morning been agitated
between us. Doth the patient speak English?”
“Therein have I found some difficulty of inquiry,”
returned Reuben, or as he should now be, and as he
was usually called, Sergeant Ring. “He hath been
spoken to in the language of a Christian, no less
than in that of a heathen, and as yet no reply hath
been made, while he obeys commands uttered in
both forms of speech.”
“It mattereth not,” said Ergot, dismounting and
drawing near to his subject, with a look towards
Dudley that should seem to court his admiration.
little on any subtleties of speech. Let the man be
placed in an attitude of ease; one in which nature
may not be fettered by restraint. The conformation
of the whole head is remarkably aboriginal, but the
distinction of tribes is not to be sought in these general
delineations. The forehead, as you see, neighbors,
is retreating and narrow, the cheek-bones, as
usual, high, and the olfactory member, as in all of
the natives, inclining to Roman.”
“Now to me it would seem that the nose of the
man hath a marked upturning at the end,” Dudley
ventured to remark, as the other ran volubly over
the general and well-known distinctive points of
physical construction in an Indian.
“As an exception! Thou seest, Ensign, by this
elevation of the bone, and the protuberance of the
more fleshy parts, that the peculiarity is an exception.
I should rather have said that the nose originally
inclined to the Roman. The departure from
regularity has been produced by some casualty of
their warfare, such as a blow from a tomahawk, or
the gash of a knife—ay! here thou seest the scar
left by the weapon! It is concealed by the paint, but
remove that, and you will find it hath all the form
of a cicatrice of a corresponding shape. These departures
from generalities have a tendency to confound
pretenders; a happy circumstance, in itself,
for the progress of knowledge on fixed principles.
Place the subject more erect, that we may see the
natural movement of the muscles. Here is an evidence
of great aquatic habits in the dimensions of
the foot, which go to confirm original conceptions.
It is a happy proof, through which, reasonable and
prudent conclusions confirm the quick-sighted glances
of practice. I pronounce the fellow to be a Narragansett.”
“Is it then a Narragansett that hath a foot to
confound a trail?” returned Eben Dudley, who had
been studying the movements and attitudes of the
captive with quite as much keenness, and with
something more of understanding, than the leech.
“Brother Ring, hast ever known an Indian leave
such an out-turning foot-print on the leaves?”
“Ensign, I marvel that a man of thy discretion
should dwell on a slight variety of movement, when
a case exists in which the laws of nature may be
traced to their sources. This training for the Indian
troubles hath made thee critical in the position
of a foot. I have said that the fellow is a Narragansett,
and what I have uttered hath not been
lightly ventured. Here is the peculiar formation
of the foot, which hath been obtained in infancy, a
fullness in the muscles of the breast and shoulders,
from unusual exercise in an element denser than
the air, and a nicer construction in—”
The physician paused, for Dudley had coolly advanced
to the captive, and, raising the thin robe
of deer-skin which was thrown over the whole of
his superior members, he exposed the unequivocal
skin of a white man. This would have proved an
embarrassing refutation to one accustomed to the
conflict of wits; but monopoly, in certain branches
of knowledge, had produced in favor of Doctor Ergot
an acknowledged superiority, that, in its effects,
might be likened to the predominating influence of
any other aristocracy, on those faculties that have
been benumbed by its operation. His opinion
changed, which is more than can be said of his
countenance; for, with the readiness of invention
which is so often practised in the felicitous institutions
we have named, and by which the reasoning
instead of regulating is adapted to the practice, he
exclaimed with uplifted hands and eyes that bespoke
the fullness of his admiration—
“Here have we another proof of the wonderful
agency by which the changes in nature are gradually
wrought! Now do we see in this Narragansett—”
“The man is white!” interrupted Dudley, tapping
the naked shoulder, which he still held exposed
to view.
“White, but not a tittle the less a Narragansett.
Your captive, beyond a doubt, oweth his existence
to Christian parentage, but accident hath thrown
him early among the aboriginals, and all those parts,
which were liable to change, were fast getting to
assume the peculiarities of the tribe. He is one of
those beautiful and connecting links in the chain of
knowledge, by which science followeth up its deductions
to demonstration.”
“I should ill brook coming to harm for doing violence
to a subject of the King,” said Reuben Ring,
a steady, open-faced yeoman, who thought far less
of the subtleties of his companion, than of discharging
his social duties in a manner fitting the character
of a quiet and well-conditioned citizen. “We
have had so much of stirring tidings, latterly, concerning
the manner the savages conduct their warfare,
that it behoveth men in place of trust to be
vigilant; for,” glancing his eyes towards the ruin
of the distant block-house, “thou knowest, brother
Dudley, that we have occasion to be watchful, in a
settlement as deep in the forest as this.”
“I will answer for the indemnity, Sergeant Ring,”
said Dudley, with an air of dignity. “I take upon
myself the keeping of this stranger, and will see
that he be borne, properly and in fitting season, before
the authorities. In the mean time, duty hath
caused us to overlook matters of moment in thy
household, which it may be seemly to communicate.
Abundance hath not been neglectful of thy interests,
during the scout.”
“What!” demanded the husband, with rather
more of earnestness than was generally exhibited
by one of habits as restrained as his own; “hath the
woman called upon the neighbors, during my absence?”
Dudley nodded an assent.
“And I shall find another boy beneath my roof?”
Doctor Ergot nodded three times, with a gravity
that might have suited a communication even more
weighty than the one he made.
“Thy woman rarely doth a good turn by halves,
Reuben. Thou wilt find that she hath made provision
for a successor to our good neighbor Ergot,
since a seventh son is born in thy house.”
The broad, honest face of the father flushed with
joy, and then a feeling less selfish came over him.
He asked, with a slight tremor in the voice, that
was none the less touching for coming from the lips
of one so stout of frame and firm of movement—
“And the woman?—in what manner doth Abundance
bear up under the blessing?”
“Bravely,” returned the leech; “go to thy dwelling,
Sergeant Ring, and praise God that there is
one to look to its concerns, in thy absence. He
who hath received the gift of seven sons, in five
years, need never be a poor nor a dependent man,
in a country like this. Seven farms, added to that
pretty homestead of mountain-land which thou
now tillest, will render thee a patriarch in thine
age, and sustain the name of Ring, hundreds of
years hence, when these colonies shall become peopled
and powerful, and, I say it boldly, caring not
who may call me one that vaunteth out of reason,
equal to some of your lofty and self-extolled kingdoms
of Europe—ay, even peradventure to the
mighty sovereignty of Portugal, itself! I have enumerated
thy future farms at seven, for the allusion
of the Ensign to the virtues of men born with natural
as pleasant speech, since it is a mere delusion of old
wives' fancy, and it would be particularly unnecessary,
here, where every reasonable situation of this
nature is already occupied. Go to thy wife, Sergeant,
and bid her be of good cheer; for she hath
done herself, thee, and thy country, a service, and
that without dabbling in pursuits foreign to her
comprehension.”
The sturdy yeoman, on whom this rich gift of
Providence had been dispensed, raised his hat, and
placing it decently before his face, he offered up a
silent thanksgiving for the favor. Then, transferring
his captive to the keeping of his superior and kinsman,
he was soon seen striding over the fields towards
his upland dwelling, with a heavy foot, though
with a light heart.
In the mean time, Dudley and his companion
bestowed a more particular attention on the silent
and nearly motionless object of their curiosity.
Though the captive appeared to be of middle age,
his eye was unmeaning, his air timid and uncertain,
and his form cringing and ungainly. In all these
particulars, he was seen to differ from the known
peculiarities of a native warrior.
Previously to departing, Reuben Ring had explained,
that while traversing the woods, on that
duty of watchfulness to which the state of the colony
and some recent signs had given rise, this wandering
person had been encountered and secured, as seemed
necessary to the safety of the settlement. He had
neither sought nor avoided his captor; but when
questioned concerning his tribe, his motive for traversing
those hills, and his future intentions, no satisfactory
reply could be extracted. He had scarcely
spoken, and the little that he said was uttered in a
jargon between the language of his interrogator
and the dialect of some barbarous nation. Though
and in the circumstances in which this wanderer
had been found, to justify his detention, little had in
truth been discovered, to supply a clue either to any
material facts in his history or to any of his views
in being in the immediate vicinity of the valley.
Guided only by this barren information, Dudley
and his companion endeavored, as they moved towards
the hamlet, to entrap their prisoner into some
confession of his object, by putting their questions
with a sagacity not unusual to men in remote and
difficult situations, where necessity and danger are
apt to keep alive all the native energies of the human
mind. The answers were little connected and
unintelligible, sometimes seeming to exhibit the
finest subtlety of savage cunning, and at others to
possess the mental helplessness of appearing the
most abject fatuity.
| CHAPTER I. The wept of Wish-ton-Wish | |