University of Virginia Library

16. CHAPTER XVI.
How the Indians condemn Robin Day to the stake, along with
Captain Brown, their adopted brother; and in what manner the
two are saved from being burned alive.

“You have blinded me, you cub of a seadog!”
cried Captain Brown, groping his way into the
cabin, where were now none but ourselves; for his
amiable wives, it seemed, had been too happy to
take part in the savage entertainment, in which
they had suffered as well as others. The smarting
of my back gave a bolder emphasis to my reply,
—“No craft yet ever took the weather of Jack
Brown on land or water!”

“Bravo!” cried Jack Brown, bursting into a
laugh, which, however, ended in a growl: “I've
heard of a rat taking a cat by the nose, and a jackass
kicking a lion. But, split me, no more gabbling:
—pick the sand out of my eyes.”

This piece of friendship I performed for the gentleman;
who, being at last freed from pain, fell into
a good humour, and highly commended the novelty
and ingenuity of my device, and swore, the next
time he went cruising, he would take in a cargo of
sand, “because why, it would be a great saving of
gunpowder.” I had my doubts and fears as to the
effects of my stratagem upon the tempers of the
savages; but Brown assured me it was a good joke,

which they would themselves enjoy, as soon as they
got their eyes washed out.

By and by, having tired of jesting upon the subject,
he proposed I should turn savage like him—
though he recommended me not to trouble myself
with any wives, “because why, they were infernal
jades, all of them,”—and accompany him forthwith
to the scene of battle, for the honest purpose of
assisting in the destruction of my late friends and
comrades, the Bloody Volunteers; which, he said,
would make the Creeks fond of me. I rejected the
proposal with indignation; upon which he himself
started off, leaving me, to my great grief, to the
tender mercies of his spouses; who, perhaps, thinking
themselves responsible for my safe keeping, immediately
laid hands upon me, and with a deal of
scolding and glowering, proceeded to tie me hand
and foot; which being done to their liking, they
rolled me into a corner of the hut, and left me to my
meditations.

And thus to my meditations I was left for more
than twenty-four hours, that is, until late in the
afternoon of the following day; during all which
time I suffered inexpressible pangs from the tightness
of the rope, and from hunger and thirst; for the
Mistresses Brown, having established me in the
corner, paid no further regard to me than if I lay at
the bottom of the Red Sea, bringing me no food,
taking no notice of my moans and lamentations and
petitions to have my bonds slackened a little, and,
indeed, appearing to be almost unconscious of my
existence.

At the end of that period, the savages returned to
the village, as I was apprized by a great number of
wild yells that suddenly arose in the forest; and presently,
Captain Brown came into the hut, looking

very much fatigued, and with a handkerchief bound
round his arm, as if he had been wounded. He
looked surprised, and then laughed, to see me
bound; but swore very majestically at his wives,
and immediately released me from my painful
bonds, with the observation, made by way of
apology for the treatment I had endured from the
furies, that “I might thank my stars they had not
taken a twist of the rope round my neck, instead of
my wrists and ankles!”

He then informed me, to my great surprise and
joy, that Captain Dicky with his Bloody Volunteers,
instead of being devoured by the savages, had outgeneralled,
if not even defeated them—that he had
taken advantage of the night and the confidence of
the besiegers, to creep from his fortress, and, after
an attack as furious as it was unexpected, in which
he had inflicted considerable loss upon them, to steal
away, marching so vigorously during the whole
night, that the savages had not been able to overtake
him, though following hotly upon the track from
morning till noon; and that, in consequence, many
of the latter, and especially the Indians of the village,
had given over the pursuit in despair, and returned
home in a very bad humour. But, he added,
there were plenty of other Creeks in pursuit, (for
the enemies of the Bloody Volunteers were not confined
to a single village,) and they would undoubtedly,
sooner or later, come up with and destroy
them; because Dicky, supposing himself cut off
from the brigade, had turned in another direction,
and was marching into the heart of the Creek territories.

While Brown was speaking, I was sensible of a
great hubbub in the streets, which increased and
approached; and, directly, a multitude of warriors,

fierce with paint and rage, come rushing into the
hut.

“Shiver my timbers,” said Brown, “the rapscallions
are after mischief!”

And so, indeed, they were; for rushing upon me,
the object of the visitation, in a body, and with such
eagerness that some of them tumbled one over the
other to the floor, they seized me with violence, and
began to drag me from the cabin. I cried out to
Brown for protection; upon which he repeated one
of his profanest interjections, adding, with what
seemed to me more of surprise than concern, that
“he believed they were going to roast me.” Nevertheless,
he made some effort for my relief, demanding,
with some appearance of indignation, “what
they wanted with his prisoner,” and insisting they
should do me no hurt, “because why, sink him, he
had adopted me into the nation.”

The savages took not the least notice of his remonstrances,
but haled me from the cabin into the
streets, where I again saw all the squaws and children
collected; and they burst into yells, at sight of
me, as they had done before, crowding eagerly and
tumultuously around the warriors, who pulled me
to the river-bank, (for the village stood on the banks
of the Tallapoosa,) and there tied me by the back to
a pine tree that grew near the edge of the bluff;
and immediately many of the squaws ran up, bearing
armloads of wood, which they began to pile in
a ring around me.

It was no longer to be doubted that they were
going to burn me alive, and that they were in the
greater hurry to begin their diabolical pastime, because
the night was now coming on fast, leaving
them scarce sufficient time to enjoy the spectacle of
my dying agonies by daylight.

I looked around for Captain Brown, who had followed
to the scene of execution, and was, I believe,
doing all he could among the warriors, by argument
and dissuasion, to save me from the horrid fate to
which they had consigned me; but I was in such
dismal confusion and anguish of spirit, that I could
note nothing but that he was among them, and think
of nothing but the share he had had in bringing me
to the present pass. I called to him, and reproached
him bitterly with the promise he had made, that my
life should not be touched, and reminded him he had
pledged his honour for my safety. At another moment,
I might have smiled at the idea of appealing
to the honour of such a man as Captain Brown; but,
after all, he had something of the kind yet left in
his breast, or some dare-devil sense of right and
wrong, for I doubt if there was virtue in it, which
took the place of honour in his composition.

“I sticks to my honour, my hearty,” he cried,
with a resolute voice, “and I don't intend the lubberly
rascals shall do you any hurt.”

And with that, he forced his way up to the tree,
and in open defiance of the whole herd, began deliberately
with a knife to cut the thongs that bound
me. The savages seemed for a moment staggered
at the act, as well as at the intrepid bearing of their
ally; but, presently relapsing into rage, they fell
upon him tooth and nail, some snatching the knife
from his hands, and others seizing him by the shoulders
to drag him away.

“Are you there, shiver me!” cried he, shaking
himself free from their grasp; which he immediately
requited by some half dozen or more terrible blows
of his fist, planted with admirable precision full in
the faces of those who had made most free with him.
This exasperated their passion into frenzy, in the

midst of which, overpowering him with numbers,
he was at last tumbled to the ground, and in two
minutes after, bound like myself to a tree, on the
point of sharing the death he was no longer able to
prevent.

But Fate had not willed we were to perish the
victims of Indian tortures. The day was closing
fast; but it was the darkness of a tempest that shortened
it prematurely. A wild moaning sound, the
uproar of a hurricane booming through the forest,
was heard even above the yells of the Indians, during
their conflict with Brown; and when that was over,
and the whoopings came to an end, it had increased
to such a degree as to engage the attention and excite
the fears of all. Indeed, the ropes had not well been
secured upon Brown's body, when, on a sudden, the
trees on the opposite bank of the river, were seen
snapping and flying in the air; while the river, late
so dark and still, was converted into a chaos of boiling
foam, intermixed with the limbs and trunks of
trees, as the tornado, with the speed of the wild-horse,
swept across it to the Indian village.

The savages, screaming with fear, fled to the refuge
of their cleared fields; and so, doubtless, would their
victims have done, if able; for I can declare, at least
for myself, that the horror of that dreadful tumult of
the elements, the sight of great trees whirling in the
air like straws, and of the river spouting up from its
bed—for no other word will express its commotion—
as if the whole body of waters were about deserting
it, filled me with such consternation, that I quite
forgot I was on the point of being burned alive, forgot,
too, that death by a thunderdolt or falling tree
would be mercy compared with immolation by the
hands of torturing Indians.

The tornado was on us in a moment, and—But I

have no kind of knowledge what happened, or how
it happened; but I remember having looked, one
moment, with horror upon Brown, who was venting
terrible execrations, in no apparent fear, but great
amazement at the appearance of things, and, the
next, finding him lugging me down the bank of the
river, swearing as furiously as before, and assuring
me, “if I was not done for, now was the time to give
them blasted Injuns the go-by.” And with that,
tumbling me into a canoe that lay on the verge of the
river, and pushing her off into the water, which was
still in great commotion, he jumped in, snatched up
a paddle, and, giving me another, bade me “flap
away like a mud-terrapin.”

The storm was still blowing, though with moderated
rage; but a great rain had succeeded, and was
now pouring in such deluges, that as I looked back
to the scene of the intended torture, I could barely
discern that the village was in ruins, and the trees
that divided it from the river, all prostrated. I could
see no Indians; they had not yet returned in quest
of their victims. The next moment, the site of the
village was concealed from my eyes by a bend of the
river, down which our canoe was urged at the greatest
speed we could give it.