University of Virginia Library

11. CHAPTER XI.
Robin Day and his commander, Captain Dare, set out again for the
wars, and win a great victory along the way; in which, as is
usual, all the honour and profit fall to the commander's share.

We arrived in a short time at the tavern where
Dicky—or, to give him his desired title, Captain
Dare—had expected to take his breakfast; and where
he now for a moderate sum succeeded in purchasing
me a poney that would serve my turn; though he
he was but a sorry nag after all. And having again
set out on our journey, Captain Dare proposed I
should give him, as was proper for a soldier's charger,
some handsome name; informing me, at the
same time, that he called his sorrel steed Bucephalus,
after the war-horse of Alexander the Great. I
proposed dubbing mine Hard-Back, which I considered
expressive of one of his most striking qualities;
but Dicky demurred, insisting that that was a vulgar
and unmilitary title; and I agreeing, at last, he might
bestow upon him what title he pleased, he named him
Pegasus; “which,” he said, “was the name of the
horse ridden by the great general Perseus, when he
slew the Centaurs.” Without venturing a hint to
Pegasus's godfather, that his classic reminiscences
were none of the most accurate, and that the steed of
the Muses was dishonoured by carrying such an insignificant
and unpoetic personage as I, I accepted

the name; and Bucephalus and Pegasus pricked forward
with their riders in peace.

We reached, and dined, that day, at a village,
where Captain Dicky, who took the charge, though
not the cost, of equipping me into his own hands,
bought me a rifle, (which, he said, was the properest
weapon for a soldier going to fight the Indians,)
with a powder horn, scalping knife, and other articles
appropriate to a backwoodsman; and I adding,
at my own instance, a hunting frock of light summer
stuff, a brace of cotton checked shirts, and some other
articles of apparel of which I was in want, I was
presently trigged out to my own satisfaction, as well
as Captain Dare's.

And now our journey was commenced in earnest,
and continued during a space of more than two
weeks, with all the zeal to be expected of two such
gallant adventurers, and with as much speed as the
nature of the country, which was full of savage
mountains, and the strength of Bucephalus and
Pegasus, who rivalled one another in laziness, would
permit. And during all that time, such was the
lenity of our fortunes, we met not a single adventure
worth recording; though I must confess to a
fright I received by stumbling, at a village inn, upon
a newspaper, in which, under the caption of “Stop
the Villain,” was an advertisement, subscribed by
my late master, Mr. Fabius Maximus Feverage,
offering a reward for the capture of the slave,
Chowder Chow, who had absconded, after an atrocious
attempt to poison his master's family with
opium. But the terror was only momentary: I was
growing valiant under the countenance of my valiant
friend; and, once parted from, and out of sight of
the inn that contained the detestable paper, I declared
that Mr. Fabius Maximus Feverage, with his

advertisement, might go to—a certain personage
who shall be nameless, and snapped my fingers in
token of my disdain.

The end of the second week of our travels, saw
us upon the frontiers of Tennessee; and we had
scarce crossed them when we discovered that we
were already upon the eve of great adventures.
News had just reached this secluded district of the
commencement of that Indian war, which my comrade
and captain had so confidently anticipated—of
the horrible catastrophe, the Massacre at Fort
Mimms on the Alabama River, by which it was
opened, and in which, as is well known, more than
four hundred human beings, half of them women
and children, the families of poor settlers, fell under
the Creek tomahawk at a blow.

This dreadful intelligence, spreading fast among
the inhabitants of this wild mountain country, had
created the greatest excitement among them. Some,
the young and manly, burned with fury, and swore
they were only waiting the movements of the proper
authorities, the proclamation of their governor
and the commands of their military leaders, of
which they were in daily expectation, to snatch
their arms, march upon the bloodthirsty barbarians,
and sweep them from the face of the earth. Others,
again, were in a horrible panic on their own account;
for though the Creeks were afar off, the Cherokees
were their near neighbours, and might be upon
them, murdering and destroying, at any moment.
It is true, the Cherokees were then, as they had been
for many years, and, in fact, continued during the
whole of the ensuing war, the friends of the whites;
but they were Indians; and, in the logic of fear,
nothing was more natural than to suppose they
would join their red brethren in the contest.

The further we advanced, the greater seemed the
ferment, which was attended, and augmented, by
rumours of the most portentous character. It was
now reported, that the savages, uniting in innumerable
hordes, had destroyed the great city of New
Orleans, and roasted all the sugar-planters in their
own boilers; and that they were, besides, marching
upon the capital of Tennessee, with the fairest prospect
of carrying off the scalps of the whole body of
Legislators, then in conclave; and now there was a
cry that the Cherokees had taken up the hatchet, and
were already killing and burning in their own neighbourhood.
In short, the excitement was prodigious,
and it extended to Captain Dare and his follower;
exhibiting, in the one, that warlike fury which distinguished
the bolder portion of society, and in the
other, I am ashamed to say, a little of the panic that
marked the less heroic division.

But what may not a great military genius effect
even upon the worst of materials? The fervour of
Captain Dare dissipated the doubts and uneasiness
of my mind; I caught a spark of his ambition; and
was infected with the audacity of spirit which contemned
danger, derided wounds, and thought of
battle only as the stepping stone to victory and renown.
Hot for the conflict, we spurred—or rather,
Dicky spurred, and I pommelled with my heels, for
I had no spurs,—the snorting Bucephalus and the
grunting Pegasus, (for Pegasus was broken-winded,)
to hasten our approach to the theatre of war; and
along the way, we devised a hundred stratagems by
which the enemy was to be defeated, and ourselves
raised to the pinnacle of fame. Dicky talked strongly
of raising a company—nay, his thoughts sometimes
rose to a regiment—of mounted riflemen, along the
way; which, received (as, considering the urgency

of the occasion, he had no doubt it would be,) into
the service of the United States, would secure him
at once a commission, and that power and consideration
among men of the steel, of which he was so
ambitious. He even made attempts to persuade
several valiant persons we met at the inns and farmhouses,
where we stopped to bait or sleep, to follow
his banner to the wars; but the hurry of our progress,
which left no time for persuasion, interfered with
his success; not to speak of the disinclination of even
the bravest and most patriotic to go a soldiering under
a commander whom they had never seen before,
who bore no commission either from state or national
government, and whose military chest did
not allow of any bounty beyond a glass of grog.

But fate, which had created Dicky for a leader,
willed that he should have a command, notwithstanding,
and that he should achieve it by his own
valour.

It happened, one day about noon, as we were pricking
along the road, that, at a solitary place at the
bottom of a hill, we stumbled suddenly upon a company
of volunteers, who had that morning, in such
a fit of warlike enthusiasm as inflamed Dicky Dare
and myself, set out from their native village, some
fifteen or twenty miles off, intending to offer their
services to the commanding general of the district,
and who, their dinner hour having arrived, had
halted, like veterans, to discuss their bacon and
homminy upon the road, disdaining to seek the ordinary
luxuries of shelter. They had halted like
veterans, but they had not troubled themselves to
form a camp, or establish sentinels, or do any thing
else in a veteran-like manner. On the contrary,
they were scattered about in a very disorderly harum-scarum
way, divided into groups, which were

so distributed that, when we came in view, there
were only four persons of the whole company to be
seen, and these sitting around a fire, where they
were broiling their dinner, and enjoying themselves.

I know not whether it was on account of their
hunting-shirts, which they had newly bedizened
for the wars with coloured tapes and fringes, or for
whatever other reason; but no sooner had the
valiant Dicky caught sight of them, than he swore
by Julius Cæsar they were Indians, and therefore
enemies; and proposed, as they were only four in
number, that we should make war upon them;
“for,” said he, with a tremendous look of slaughter,
“we can take them by surprise, and shoot down
three at the first crack—you, one with your rifle, I
two with my pistols; and then charge upon them;
and I answer for the other fellow with my sabre;”
—for so he called the cut-and-thrust.

I cannot say I had the greatest appetite for such
an encounter, and, indeed, my natural impulse was
to turn Pegasus the other way, and beat an instant
retreat. But the fire of Dicky prevailed over my
hesitation; and following him into the wood, that
we might approach the enemy unobserved, we succeeded
in reaching within a hundred paces of them;
at which distance we let fly our fire-arms, and then
charged upon them at full speed.

Who can calculate the effects of resolution? The
surprise, the terrible volley, (by which, however,
no one was harmed,) and our furious charge, secured
us an immediate victory. The four enemies started
to their feet, and, marvellous to be said, a score more to
the back of them; who, leaping into view from among
the bushes which had concealed them from our sight,
fled away, with yells of astonishment and terror;

some jumping upon their horses, which were haltered
round a tree, others flying on foot, but all doing
their best to escape the danger that had so suddenly
fallen upon them. The route was irretrievable, the
victory complete; but just as we had effected it, we
made the discovery that our supposed Indians were
all white men; and they making the same discovery
in regard to us, whom they had taken for a band of
five hundred Cherokees just bursting into war, they
returned to their camp—at least, the majority of
them did, the others having continued their flight
all the way back to their native village—burning
with shame and rage; and for a few moments, I
thought they would have murdered Dicky and me,
so much did they take to heart our bloody-minded
assault, and their own disgraceful retreat.

But a revulsion soon took place in their feelings;
they admired the surprising courage of their conqueror,
who could rush into battle so regardless of
odds, and his handsome uniform won their hearts;
and when, after a little explanation, they found that
Dicky was a volunteer for the Indian Wars, like
themselves, and that he was fresh from the battle
fields of Virginia—that he had seen the red-coats
and fought them—ay, and beat them too—they fell
into a rapture, and immediately offered to elect him
their captain, which they were the more able to do,
as their own commander, the first to fly, had now
entirely disappeared, and was never more heard of.
To this proposal, there was but one dissenting voice,
—that of the first lieutenant of the company, who
insisted upon his right to succeed to the command.
But his obstinacy was immediately overcome by
one of the company, who, indignant that an officer
of volunteers should presume to oppose the will of
his followers, fell foul of him and gave him a tremendous

drubbing; whereupon he threw up his
commission in disgust, and mounting his horse, followed
after his runaway superior.

I had, on my part, some hopes of being preferred
to this second vacant office, as I also had seen the
redcoats, and fought among them, as well as Captain
Dare, though, to be sure, not on the same side; but
as I had no handsome uniform, as I had not perhaps
preserved quite so bold a front as Dicky, at the
moment when the enraged warriors were upon the
point of blowing our brains out, and, above all, as I
had not the same good luck as my companion, I was
destined to be disappointed. The lieutenant's seat
was filled by the intrepid fellow who had just flogged
him out of it; and I, finding I could do nothing
better, was content to be admitted a private member
of the band, of which Dicky Dare was unanimously
elected captain.