University of Virginia Library

15. CHAPTER XV.
Bobin Day, a prisoner among the Indians, is carried to their village,
where he is made to run the gauntlet; the happy device
which he puts into execution against his tormentors.

With that, he laughed again, but seized me by
the arm, and pulled me down into the bushes, to conceal
me from the Creeks, who, he said—and, truly, I
believed him—would murder me, if they saw me;
and there he held me, until they had got a little away,
in pursuit of the Bloody Volunteers, who were now
flying in another direction.

“Split my topsails!” cried Captain Brown, laughing
again, “but I believe you'll be my lieutenant
yet! How, in the name of Davy Jones and all the
prophets, did you get here among these blasted Injuns?
and how do you like 'em? For my part, sink
me, I think it's a fine thing, this fighting in the way
of nature—banging away from a bush, and cutting
off scalps, as you'd slice the top off an orange.”

“Captain Brown, there's no time for talking;”
said I; and would have said more, but he interrupted
me.

“True enough,” quoth he: “and while the red
raggamuffins are making mince-meat of them milishymen,
the lubbers, why we'll just save your numskull
from their dirty fingers.”

And with that he bade me follow him, which I

did some distance through the woods, until the savages
were no longer to be seen, though we could
hear a brisk firing, as if the Bloody Volunteers, or
perhaps their Indian allies, had turned bravely to
fighting again; when I told him I thought I could
now make good my escape, and find my way back
to the brigade.

He told me, “no—the woods were now full of
Creeks, who had cut off the retreat of our party, and
not a man of it could escape—the savages would
have every scalp in less than an hour, and mine too,
unless he took good care of it for me—which he
intended to do, because, split him, he loved me.”
And thereupon, he said he would take me to the Indian
town, (that very one Captain Dicky had set out
in the morning, with such a valiant design of taking
by storm,) has is prisoner. I assured him, in
great tribulation, “I would rather take my chance
in the woods; because it was notorious, the Creeks,
in this war, had never admitted a prisoner to mercy;”
which he agreed was very true, but I was his prisoner,
and not theirs; and with that, he delivered a
volley of oaths, and gave me his word of honour the
Indians should not kill me.

“But,” said I, grasping my rifle, which I had not
yet deserted, “I have no notion of remaining even
their prisoner. And so, Captain Brown, with many
thanks to you for your good will, and especially for
having saved my life, (for which reason, I forgive
your having made a slave of me,) I bid you goodby.”

And so saying, I turned to escape; when, to my
horror and astonishment, Captain Brown let fly his
piece (which he had recharged as we walked along,)
within an inch of my ear; and then seizing me by
the collar, as I stood petrified, brandishing at the

same time a knife in in my face, as if he meant to
cut my throat, he cried, “Hold still, you blasted
skilligallee, or you'll be murdered to a certainty!”

I understood in an instant that his purpose was to
save, not to destroy me; for even as he spoke, I
heard a shrill whoop, and up ran three wild savages,
who must have been within view as I started to run,
and would undoubtedly, had I got any distance from
Brown, have served me the turn they were now
most anxious to do,—that is, to kill me. They
came yelling and ravening up, and it was all Brown
could do to save me from their knives and hatchets.
He cursed and swore, threatened, looked big and
ferocious, and told them repeatedly, now in English,
now in a mongrel Indian jabber he had picked up,
that I was his prisoner, and if they wanted one, they
might go hunt for one themselves. In short, he
prevented their murderous designs, though he could
not entirely drive them off, as he wished; and when
he presently signified that I must accompany him
to the village, which I prepared to do, without resistance,
being no longer able to help myself, they
followed at a little distance behind us, looking sullen,
and ferocious, and expectant, like so many wolves
awaiting the moment to snap up the poor traveller
whom they are dogging on his journey.

This circumstance, in addition to other causes of
grief,—the fate of my brother volunteers, who, I
feared, were by this time all massacred, and the
prospect of captivity, supposing nothing worse
should ensue,—it may be supposed, had no very
favourable effect upon my spirits.

But the natural buoyancy of my mind, added to
the assurances of Captain Brown, who repeatedly
declared I had nothing to fear, and laughed at my
uneasiness, gradually brought me into a more cheerful

frame, so that I could give ear to the conversation
with which he beguiled the way to the village.

He desired again to know how I had escaped
from the hands of Mr. Feverage; upon which I related
the whole story, and asked him how he could
reconcile it to his sense of honour to treat me in
that way? “Oh!” said he, with a grin, “the devil
got into my head, and I couldn't help it. Besides,
it was what the sodgers call a mine countermined, a
trick for a trick, split me; because how, d'ye see,
my hearty, you were just meditating how you should
give me the slip; and hang me, no craft yet ever
took the weather of Jack Brown, on land or water.”

I then, having informed him of the remainder of
my adventures, with which he was vastly diverted,
but with none so much as the discovery that the
gallant Dicky Dare, his vanquisher on the highway,
was the commander of the Bloody Volunteers, the
heroes and sufferers of the day—I then requested,
in my turn, to know what had thus brought him
among the Indians, and arrayed him so traitorously
in arms against his own country.

“My own country be d—d!” quoth Jack Brown,
with lofty contempt; “I sails under my own flag,
and nobody's else. But as for how I came here
among these red Injuns, why, blast me, it was partly
because of an accident; for, d'ye see, hang me, I
took to the road again for diversion, just to kill time
on the way; but some how, split me, I killed a niggur-trader
—”

“Killed a negro-trader!” cried I, with a faltering
voice.

“Yes,” said Captain Brown, with ineffable coolness—“I
knock'd him off his horse with his own
riding-whip, which I borrowed for the purpose; and
then marched his niggurs to the next town to sell

them; for, shiver my timbers, d'ye see, the niggurs,
being niggurs, could not witness against me. But
some how or other, they got up a row about it;
and so there was nothing but to up anchor and
crowd on all sail for the Injun country. And so,
hearing the paint-faced lubbers loved an Englishman;
why, sink me, says I, `I'm an Englishman,
and I'm come to have a brush with you against
your foes, my red-faced hearties, for I loves it.'
And so they made much of me, and I have very
good times with 'em, taking topknots. And,” concluded
Captain Brown, “there's fun in it.”

What a perverse fate was mine, to connect me,
and, as it seemed, so inextricably, with the fortunes
of such a man as Captain Brown, a fellow to whom
swindling and fraud of every kind were but jests—
who spoke of killing a man as if nothing were more
natural and proper, and saw nothing but very good
fun in helping savage Indians to take the scalps of
his own countrymen.

Nevertheless, Captain Brown had, just that moment,
saved my life, and was the only person
who could afford the protection, of which, it was
obvious, I still stood in need. And, therefore, I
had no idea of letting the horror and disgust with
which he inspired me, deprive me of the advantages
of his friendship.

After an hour or two, walking, we reached the
village; where my unexpected presence produced a
furious hubbub among the squaws and papooses, the
only inhabitants, all the warriors and others capable
of bearing arms, having gone out against the
unfortunate Volunteers. They screeched and raved
like so many furies and little imps of darkness;
some pelted me with mud and chunks of wood, the
little boys shot at me with arrows, and set the dogs

on to devour me; while one or two old beldams,
as ugly as baboons and as fierce as tiger-cats, ran at
me with knives, making every effort to despatch
me. Captain Brown interposed, as before, to save
me. He cursed the boys, he kicked the dogs, and
tossed the old women away; but I did not esteem
myself perfectly safe, until he had dragged me into
a cabin, of which I soon found by the airs he put on
he was the master.

Here, though I was protected from the mob of
the street, I found myself confronted by three
young, but by no means handsome squaws; who also
burst into a rage at sight of me, and seemed inclined
to give me as savage a reception as the others had
done; but upon Captain Brown swearing at them,
which he did with great energy, they slunk away
to their domestic occupations, one to pounding corn
in a mortar, another to puffing a fire under a pot,
the third to some other work, but all grumbling and
scolding in their own language, like viragoes of the
most acid temperament, giving me every now and
then looks of implacable hatred. I asked Captain
Brown who they were; to which he replied, to my
astonishment, “they were his wives, sink them, and
as cursed a pack of jades as were to be found in the
whole Creek nation.” And thereupon the intolerable
Turk told me, “If I wanted one, I might have one
—or, for the matter of that, all three of them; and
for his part, split him, he would never marry
another Injun wife again as long as he lived, because
why, he believed one was just as big a jade as
another.”

This was a new illustration of the extraordinary
want of principles which Brown had long since
coolly avowed, and which every act and word of
his, only more surprisingly confirmed.

A half hour or more was spent in conversation,
in which Brown gave a more detailed history of his
adventures since abandoning me to Mr. Feverage;
and then we sat down to an Indian dinner of meat,
corn, pumpkins and sweet potatoes, all boiled
together in a pot. The dish was not the most
savoury in the world, but, being hungry, I should
perhaps have very well enjoyed it, had it not been
for the entrance into the hut of a savage-looking
warrior, apparently fresh from the battle, who was
presently followed by another, and then another and
another, until there were more than a dozen of them
present. I was not much dismayed at the appearance
of the first visiter, who, at Captain Brown's
invitation, squatted down at his side, and partook of
our dinner; and, being asked upon the subject by
Brown, proceeded, in broken English, to inform him
of the results of the battle. He stated that the
affair was not yet over, that the Bloody Volunteers
had been unluckily driven in such a direction as to
stumble upon and effect a junction with their allies,
the friendly Indians, who had been also intercepted
—that the party thus reunited, had rallied under the
encouragement of the intrepid Dicky, and taken possession
of an old deserted wigwam, from which it was
not thought prudent to attempt to dislodge them until
night; and that, accordingly, the Creeks had retired
to a distance, still, however, surrounding the ruin,
which, there was no doubt, they would carry, at the
approach of darkness. This had given an opportunity
to our informant, and, as it afterwards appeared,
to many other Indians to return for a while to the
village.

It was some satisfaction to me to hear that poor
Dicky and his followers were yet alive; but the appearance
of so many savages in the cabin drove from

my mind all thoughts of my friends, and of every
thing else but self; especially when one of these desperadoes,
after having eaten a very hearty meal, got
up, and in the course of a long speech, addressed in
broken English to Captain Brown, proposed that I,
his prisoner, should be taken out and made to run
the gauntlet, for the satisfaction of the women and
children; who, he represented with great pathos,
were mourning the loss of many a husband and
father, slain by the white man, and stood therefore in
need of some such consolation.

To this amiable proposal Captain Brown, to do him
justice, at first returned a flat refusal; but the other
Indians now joining in the request, and some proceeding
to the length of actually laying hands upon
me, as if determined to have their will, whether
Brown consented or not, he made a merit of necessity
and surrendered me up, notwithstanding the
many piteous entreaties I made him to protect me.
I reminded him of the promise he had made, on his
honour, that the Indians should not kill me; to which,
he replied, very coolly; “they were not going to kill,
but to carbonado me;” and comforted me with the
assurance, that “one was not to expect to get through
the world, without a few little rubs, split him.”

In short, Captain Brown, with all his professions
of friendship seemed not in the least distressed at
my affliction; and I was immediately haled out into
the air, where my former tormentors, the squaws
and little boys, already collected in expectation, received
me with cries of mingled fury and delight.
They immediately arrayed themselves, with the assistance
of the warriors, into two lines about six
feet apart, and perhaps a hundred paces long; thus
forming a narrow alley, through which I was to run
to Brown's cabin, at the door of which the lines

ended. All the persons forming the lines, squaws,
children, and warriors, were armed with sticks and
bludgeons, and some of them, I am certain, with
knives and hatchets; notwithstanding that Brown,
who assisted with great apparent spirit and gusto in
arranging the lines, assured me the warriors had
agreed there should be no dangerous weapons used.

I need not tell the reader with what emotions of
indignation and grief I found myself degraded to
such a fate, to make sport and pastime for vagabond
Indians, whom I despised, even while I feared and
hated them. But indignation and grief could not
save me from the fate. I must run the gauntlet
through those lines; and Brown, cautioning me to
“run fair,” as he called it, declared, I would be infallibly
murdered, if I broke through the lines; and
all I could hope was, by employing my utmost speed
and agility in avoiding the blows to be aimed at me,
to get through the infernal ceremony as quickly, and
with as little hurt as might be.

Such was the advice of Captain Brown; who, having
proved his friendship by giving it, and placed
me at a point a few yards in advance of the lines,
ready to start at the signal, took post at his own
cabin-door door to give it, and to receive me when
the race was over.

As I stood a moment, looking down the living
alley, bristling with clubs upheld in readiness, and
sparkling with eyes all turned towards me with diabolical
expectation, my fears got the mastery of me,
and I felt a sudden inclination to run the race the
otherway—that is, fly to the woods, instead of to Captain
Brown's wigwam. My next feeling was wrath
and malice, and a desire, since escape was impossible,
to make the sport result in as much suffering to my
tormentors as to their victim. This vengeful feeling,

or some good angel, I know not which, suddenly
brought to my mind the recollection of my adventures
with the negroes in the streets of Philadelphia,
and the device by which I had so effectually revenged
upon the black dandy the indignities I had suffered
from his brethren. I had no Scotch snuff to be sure,
to enable me to play the same game over again on the
present occasion; but my eye was attracted by a
mass of loose light sand strewing the path on which
I stood; and I felt that a better substitute for Scotch
snuff could not have been offered me. Stooping
down to the ground and busying myself a moment
about my shoe, as if securing it for the race, I took
the opportunity to snatch up in each hand as much
sand as I could well cram into them; and then, the
word being given by Brown crying out, “Now, my
skilligallee, run, you lubber!”—words that brought
a peal of yells from the savages, I started at full
speed down the alley, scattering, as the husbandman
does his seed, a litte sand from both sides, and aiming
it with admirable accuracy full at the eyes of
my persecutors, administering always a double dose
where I had reason, from the bigness of the club or
the fury of the visage, to apprehend the most dangerous
enemy.

The device succeeded wonderfully; it protected
me from many a blow, aimed or intended to be
aimed, at my unprotected body; and it changed the
cries of ferocity of my enemies to yells of pain and
anguish. Nothing can express the horrible confusion
I left, at every step, as I ran, behind me; two
hundred and fifty savages, man, woman, and child,
were suddenly consigned to blindness, with each at
least ten grains of sand in either eye; and how they
ever got rid of them, as I am certain I left not a

sound eye to help the afflicted in all the village, I
know not.

Next to the satisfaction of thus repaying, or anticipating,
their cruelties, was that of my almost perfect
exemption from injury. Some slight blows I
received, indeed, and one cut, which I supposed was
from a knife, on my left shoulder; but I should have
reached Brown's cabin without a hurt of any consequence,
had it not been that this worthy himself, my
faithful friend, after giving the signal, had jumped
in at the end of the line with a shillelah; with which,
roaring in animated tones, “run, you lubber!” he
hit me a tremendous thwack, by which I was
tumbled, or rather darted, headlong into the cabin.
Unfortunately for my own interests, as I
had entertained no apprehensions of such a salute
from Captain Brown, I had made no preparations to
prevent it; unfortunately for Captain Brown, however,
I was aware of his intent in time to revenge it;
and at the very moment his stick came in contact
with my back, I succeeded by a violent effort in
flinging all my remaining ammunition into his face;
and his furious exclamation, “shiver my timbers, I
am blinded for ever!” was mingled with the less
comprehensible, but equally agonized ejaculations of
the Indians.