University of Virginia Library

3. CHAPTER III.

There I stood, alone and unarmed, in the centre of six
athletic men, for Lowiny had been sent to assemble her
brothers; a business in which she was aided by Prudence's
blowing a peculiar sort of blast on her conch; and, as unable
to resist, as a child would have been in the hands of its
parent. As a fruitless scuffle would have been degrading,
as well as useless, I at once determined to submit, temporarily
at least, or so long as submission did not infer disgrace,
and was better than resistance. There did not seem
to be any immediate disposition to lay violent hands on me,
however, and there I stood, a minute or two, after I had
missed Sureflint, surrounded by the whole brood of the

squatter, young and old, male and female; some looking
defiance, others troubled, and all anxious. As for myself,
I will frankly own my sensations were far from pleasant;
for I knew I was in the hands of the Philistines, in the
depths of a forest, fully twenty miles from any settlement,
and with no friends nearer than the party of the Chainbearer,
who was at least two leagues distant, and altogether
ignorant of my position as well as of my necessities. A
ray of hope, however, gleamed in upon me through the probable
agency of the Onondago.

Not for an instant did I imagine that long-known and well-tried
friend of my father and the Chainbearer false. His
character was too well established for that; and it soon
occurred to me, that, foreseeing his own probable detention
should he remain, he had vanished with a design to let the
strait in which I was placed be known, and to lead a party
to my rescue. A similar idea probably struck Thousandacres
almost at the same instant; for, glancing his eye
around him, he suddenly demanded—

“What has become of the red-skin? The varmint has
dodged away, as I 'm an honest man! Nathaniel, Moses,
and Daniel, to your rifles and on the trail. Bring the fellow
in, if you can, with a whull skin; but if you can't, an Injin
more or less will never be heeded in the woods.”

I soon had occasion to note that the patriarchal government
of Thousandacres was of a somewhat decided and
prompt character. A few words went a great ways in it,
as was now apparent; for in less than two minutes after
Aaron had issued his decree, those namesakes of the prophets
and lawgivers of old, Nathaniel, and Moses, and
Daniel, were quitting the clearing on diverging lines, each
carrying a formidable, long, American hunting-rifle in his
hand. This weapon, so different in the degree of its power
from the short military piece that has become known to
modern warfare, was certainly in dangerous hands; for
each of those young men had been familiar with his rifle
from boyhood; gunpowder and liquor, with a little lead,
composing nearly all the articles on which they lavished
money for their amusement. I trembled for Susquesus;
though I knew he must anticipate a pursuit, and was so
well skilled in throwing off a chase as to have obtained the

name of the Trackless. Still, the odds were against him;
and experience has shown that the white man usually surpasses
the Indian even in his own peculiar practices, when
there have been opportunities to be taught. I could do no
more, however, than utter a mental prayer for the escape
of my friend.

“Bring that chap in here,” added old Thousandacres
sternly, the moment he saw that his three sons were off;
enough remaining to enforce that or any other order he
might choose to issue. “Bring him into this room, and let
us hold a court on him, sin' he is sich a lover of the law.
If law he likes, law let him have. An attorney is he? I
warnt to know! What has an attorney to do with me and
mine, out here in the woods?”

While this was in the course of being said, the squatter,
and father of squatters, led the way into his own cabin,
where he seated himself with an air of authority, causing
the females and younger males of his brood to range themselves
in a circle behind his chair. Seeing the folly of resistance,
at a hint from Zephaniah I followed, the three
young men occupying the place near the door, as a species
of guard. In this manner we formed a sort of court, in
which the old fellow figured as the investigating magistrate,
and I figured as the criminal.

“An attorney, be you!” muttered Thousandacres, whose
ire against me in my supposed, would seem to be more excited
than it was against me in my real character. “B'ys,
silence in the court; we 'll give this chap as much law as
he can stagger under, sin' he 's of a law natur'. Everything
shall be done accordin' to rule. Tobit,” addressing his oldest
son, a colossal figure of about six-and-twenty, “you 've been
in the law more than any on us, and can give us the word.
What was 't they did with you, first, when they had you up
in Hampshire colony; the time when you and that other
young man went across from the Varmount settlements to
look for sheep? A raft of the crittur's you did get atween
you, though you was waylaid and robbed of all your hard
'arnin's, afore you got back ag'in in the mountains. They
dealt with you accordin' to law, 'twas said; now, what was
the first thing done?”

“I was tuck [taken] afore the 'squire,” answered Tobit

Thousandacres, as he was often called, “who heerd the
case, asked me what I had to say for myself, and then permitted
me, as it was tarmed; so I went to gaol until the
trial came on, and I s'pose you know what come next, as
well as I do.”

I took it for granted that what “come next” was anything
but pleasant in remembrance, the reason Tobit did
not relish it even in description, inasmuch as sheep-stealers
were very apt to get “forty save one” at the whipping-post,
in that day, a species of punishment that was admirably
adapted to the particular offence. We are getting among
us a set of soi-disant philanthropists, who, in their great desire
to coddle and reform rogues, are fast placing the punnishment
of offences on the honest portion of the community,
for the especial benefit of their eleves. Some of these persons
have already succeeded in cutting down all our whipping-posts,
thereby destroying the cheapest and best mode
of punishing a particular class of crimes that was ever invented
or practised. A generation hence, our children will
feel the consequences of this mistaken philanthropy. In
that day, let those who own fowl-houses, pig-pens, orchards,
smoke-houses, and other similar temptations to small depredations,
look to it, for I am greatly mistaken if the insecurity
of their moveables does not give the most unanswerable
of all commentaries on this capital misstep. One whipping-post,
discreetly used, will do more towards reforming a
neighbourhood than a hundred gaols, with their twenty and
thirty days' imprisonments![1] I have as much disposition
to care for the reformation of criminals as is healthful, if I
know myself; but the great object of all the punishments of
society, viz., its own security, ought never to be sacrificed
to this, which is but a secondary consideration. Render
character, person and property as secure as possible, in the

first place, after which, try as many experiments in philanthropy
as you please.

I am sorry to see how far the disposition to economise is
extending itself, in the administration of American justice,
generally. Under a government like that of this country,
it is worse than idle, for it is perfectly futile to attempt to
gratify the imagination by a display of its power, through
the agency of pomp and representation. Such things,
doubtless, have their uses, and are not to be senselessly
condemned until one has had an opportunity of taking near
views of their effects; though useful, or the reverse, they
can never succeed here. But these communities of ours
have it in their power to furnish to the world a far more
illustrious example of human prescience, and benevolent
care, by its prompt, exact, and well-considered administration
of justice—including the cases in both the civil and the
criminal courts. With what pride might not the American
retort, when derided for the simplicity of his executive, and
the smallness of the national expenditure in matters of mere
representation, could he only say—“True, we waste nothing
on mere parade; but, turn to the courts, and to the
justice of the country; which, after all, are the great aim
of every good government. Look at the liberality of our
expenditures, for the command of the highest talent, in the
first place; see, with what generous care we furnish judges
in abundance, to prevent them from being overworked, and
to avoid ruinous delays to suitors; then, turn to the criminal
courts, and into, first, the entire justice of the laws; next,
the care had in the selection of jurors; the thorough impartiality
of all the proceedings; and, finally, when the right
demands it, the prompt, unerring, and almost terrific majesty
of punishment.” But, to return to something that is a good
deal more like truth:—

“Yes, yes,” rejoined Thousandacres, “there is no use
in riling the feelin's, by talking of that”—(meaning Tobit's
sufferings, not at the stake, but at the post;)—“a hint's as
good as a description. You was taken afore a magistrate,
was you;—and he permitted you to prison—but, he asked
what you had to say for yourself, first? That was only
fair, and I mean to act it all out here, accordin' to law.

Come, young attorney, what have you got to say for yourself?”

It struck me that, alone as I was, in the hands of men
who were a species of outlaws, it might be well to clear
myself from every imputation that, at least, was not
merited.

“In the first place,” I answered, “I will explain a mistake
into which you have fallen, Thousandacres; for, let
us live as friends or foes, it is always best to understand
facts. I am not an attorney, in the sense you imagine—I
am not a lawyer.”

I could see that the whole brood of squatters, Prudence
included, was a good deal mollified by this declaration. As
for Lowiny, her handsome, ruddy face actually expressed
exultation and delight! I thought I heard that girl half suppress
some such exclamation as—“I know'd he wasn't no
lawyer!” As for Tobit, the scowling look, replete with
cat-o'-nine-tails, actually departed, temporarily at least. In
short, this announcement produced a manifest change for
the better.

“No lawyer, a'ter all!” exclaimed Thousandacres—
“Didn't you say you was an attorney?”

“That much is true. I told you that I was the son of
general Littlepage, and that I was his attorney, and that of
colonel Follock, the other tenant in common of this estate;
meaning that I held their power of attorney to convey
lands, and to transact certain other business, in their
names.”

This caused me to lose almost as much ground as I had
just gained, though, being the literal truth, I was resolved
neither to conceal, nor to attempt to evade it.

“Good land!” murmured Lowiny. “Why couldn't the
man say nothin' about all that!”

A reproving look from Prudence, rebuked the girl, and
she remained silent afterwards, for some time.

“A power of attornies, is it!” rejoined the squatter.
“Wa-a-l, that's not much better than being a downright
lawyer. It 's having the power of an attorney, I s'pose,
and without their accursed power it 's little I should kear
for any of the breed. Then you 're the son of that Gin'ral
Littlepage, which is next thing to being the man himself. I

should expect if Tobit, my oldest b'y, was to fall into the
hands of some that might be named, it would go hard with
him, all the same as if t'was myself. I know that some
make a difference atween parents and children, but other
some doosen't. What 's that you said about this gin'ral's
only being a common tenant of this land? How dares he
to call himself its owner, if he 's only a common tenant?”

The reader is not to be surprised at Thousandacres'
trifling blunders of this sort; for, those whose rule of right
is present interest, frequently, in the eagerness of rapacity,
fall into this very kind of error; holding that cheap at one
moment, which they affect to deem sacred at the next. I
dare say, if the old squatter had held a lease of the spot he
occupied, he would at once have viewed the character and
rights of a `common tenant,' as connected with two of the
most important interests of the country. It happened, now,
however, that it was “his bull that was goring our ox.”

“How dares he to call himself the owner of the sile,
when he 's only a common tenant, I say?” repeated Thousandacres,
with increasing energy, when he found I did not
answer immediately.

“You have misunderstood my meaning. I did not say
that my father was only a `common tenant' of this property,
but that he and colonel Follock own it absolutely in
common, each having his right in every acre, and not one
owning one half while the other owns the other; which is
what the law terms being `tenants in common,' though
strictly owners in fee.”

“I shouldn't wonder, Tobit, if he turns out to be an
attorney, in our meaning, a'ter all!”

“It looks desp'rately like it, father,” answered the eldest
born, who might have been well termed the heir at law of
all his progenitor's squatting and fierce propensities. “If
he isn't a downright lawyer, he looks more like one than
any man I ever seed out of court, in my whull life.”

“He 'll find his match! Law and I have been at loggerheads
ever sin' the day I first went into Varmount, or them
plaguy Hampshire Grants. When law gets me in its
clutches, it 's no wonder if it gets the best on 't; but, when
I get law in mine, or one of its sarvants, it shall be my fault
if law doosen't come out second best. Wa-a-l, we 've heerd

the young man's story, Tobit. I 've asked him what he
had to say for himself, and he has g'in us his tell—tell'd us
how he 's his own father's son, and that the gin'ral is some
sort of a big tenant, instead of being a landlord, and isn't
much better than we are ourselves; and it 's high time I
permitted him to custody. You had writin's for what they
did to you, I dares to say, Tobit?”

“Sartain. The magistrate give the sheriff's deputy a
permittimus, and, on the strength of that, they permitted
me to gaol.”

“Ye-e-es—I know all about their niceties and appearances!
I have had dealin's afore many a magistrate, in
my day, and have onsuited many a chap that thought to
get the best on't afore we begun! Onsuiting the man that
brings the suit, is the cleanest way of getting out of the
law, as I knows on; but it takes a desp'rate long head
sometimes to do it! Afore I permit this young man, I 'll
show writin's, too. Prudence, just onlock the drawer—”

“I wish to correct one mistake before you proceed further,”
interrupted I. “For the second time, I tell you I am
no lawyer, in any sense of the word. I am a soldier—have
commanded a company in General Littlepage's own regiment,
and served with the army when only a boy in years.
I saw both Burgoyne and Cornwallis surrender, and their
troops lay down their arms.”

“Good now! Who'd ha' thought it!” exclaimed the compassionate
Lowiny. “And he so young, that you 'd hardly
think the wind had ever blown on him!”

My announcement of this new character was not without
a marked effect. Fighting was a thing to the whole family's
taste, and what they could appreciate better, perhaps, than
any other act or deed. There was something warlike in
Thousandacres' very countenance and air, and I was not
mistaken in supposing he might feel some little sympathy
for a soldier. He eyed me keenly; and, whether or not he
discovered signs of the truth of my assertion in my mien,
I saw that he once more relented in purpose.

“You out ag'in Burg'yne!” the old fellow exclaimed.
“Can I believe what you say? Why, I was out again
Burg'yne myself, with Tobit, and Moses, and Nathaniel,
and Jedidiah—with every male crittur' of the family, in

short, that was big enough to load and fire. I count them
days as among my very best, though they did come late,
and a'ter old age had made some head ag'in me. How can
you prove you was out ag'in Burg'yne and Cornwallis?”

I knew that there was often a strange medley of soi-disant
patriotic feeling mixed up with the most confirmed knavery
in ordinary matters, and saw I had touched a chord that
might thrill on the sympathies of even these rude and
supremely selfish beings. The patriotism of such men,
indeed, is nothing but an enlargement of selfishness, since
they prize things because they belong to themselves, or
they, in one sense, belong to the things. They take sides
with themselves, but never with principles. That patriotism
alone is pure, which would keep the country in the paths
of truth, honour and justice; and no man is empowered, in
his zeal for his particular nation, any more than in his zeal
for himself, to forget the law of right.

“I cannot prove I was out against Burgoyne, standing
here where I am, certainly,” I answered; “but give me an
opportunity, and I will show it to your entire satisfaction.”

“Which rijiment was on the right, Hazen's or Brookes's,
in storming the Jarmans? Tell me that, and I will soon
let you know whether I believe you or not.”

“I cannot tell you that fact, for I was with my own battalion,
and the smoke would not permit such a thing to be
seen. I do not know that either of the corps you mention
was in that particular part of the field that day, though I
believe both to have been warmly engaged.”

“He warnt there,” drawled out Tobit, in his most dissatisfied
manner, almost showing his teeth, like a dog, under
the impulse of the hatred he felt.

“He was there!” cried Lowiny, positively; “I know he
was there!”

A slap from Prudence taught the girl the merit of silence;
but the men were too much interested to heed an interruption
as characteristic and as bootless as this.

“I see how it is,” added Thousandacres; “I must permit
the chap a'ter all. Seein', however, that there is a chance
of his having been out ag'in Burg'yne, I 'll permit him
without writin's, and he shan't be bound. Tobit, take your
prisoner away, and shut him up in the store-'us'. When

your brothers get back from their hunt a'ter the Injin, we 'll
detarmine among us what is to be done with him.”

Thousandacres delivered his orders with dignity, and
they were obeyed to the letter. I made no resistance, since
it would only have led to a scuffle, in which I should have
sustained the indignity of defeat, to say nothing of personal
injuries. Tobit, however, did not offer personal violence,
contenting himself with making a sign for me to follow him,
which I did, followed in turn by his two double-jointed brothers.
I will acknowledge that, as we proceeded towards
my prison, the thought of flight crossed my mind; and I
might have attempted it, but for the perfect certainty that,
with so many on my heels, I must have been overtaken,
when severe punishment would probably have been my lot.
On the whole, I thought it best to submit for a time, and
trust the future to Providence. As to remonstrance or deprecation,
pride forbade my having recourse to either. I
was not yet reduced so low as to solicit favours from a
squatter.

The gaol to which I was “permitted” by Thousandacres
was a store-house, or, as he pronounced the word, a “store-'us,”
of logs, which had been made of sufficient strength to
resist depredations, let them come from whom they might;
and they were quite as likely to come from some within as
from any without. In consequence of its destination, the
building was not ill-suited to become a gaol. The logs, of
course, gave a sufficient security against the attempts of a
prisoner without tools or implements of any sort, the roof
being made of the same materials as the sides. There was
no window, abundance of air and light entering through the
fissures of the rough logs, which had open intervals between
them; and the only artificial aperture was the door. This
last was made of stout planks, and was well secured by
heavy hinges, and strong bolts and locks. The building
was of some size, too—twenty feet in length, at least—one
end of it, though then quite empty, having been intended
and used as a crib for the grain that we Americans call, par
excellence, corn. Into this building I entered, after having
the large knife that most woodsmen carry taken from my
pocket; and a search was made on my person for any similar
implement that might aid me in an attempt to escape.

In that day America had no paper money, from the bay
of Hudson to Cape Horn. Gold and silver formed the currency,
and my pockets had a liberal supply of both, in the
shape of joes and half joes, dollars, halves, and quarters.
Not a piece of coin, of any sort, was molested, however,
these squatters not being robbers, in the ordinary signification
of the term, but merely deluded citizens, who appropriated
the property of others to their own use, agreeably to
certain great principles of morals that had grown up under
their own peculiar relations to the rest of mankind, their
immediate necessities and their convenience. I make no
doubt that every member of the family of Thousandacres
would spurn the idea of his or her's being a vulgar thief,
drawing some such distinctions in the premises as the Drakes,
Morgans, Woodes Rogers' and others of that school, drew
between themselves and the vulgar every-day sea-robbers
of the seventeenth century, though with far less reason.
But robbers these squatters were not, except in one mode,
and that mode they almost raised to the dignity of respectable
hostilities, by the scale on which they transacted business.

I was no sooner “locked up” than I began a survey of
my prison and the surrounding objects. There was no difficulty
in doing either, the openings between the logs allowing
of a clear reconnoissance on every side. With a view
to keeping its contents in open sight, I fancy, the “store-'us”
was placed in the very centre of the settlement, having the
mills, cabins, barns, sheds and other houses, encircling it
in a sort of hamlet. This circumstance, which would render
escape doubly difficult, was, notwithstanding, greatly in
favour of reconnoitring. I will now describe the results of
my observations. As a matter of course, my appearance,
the announcement of my character, and my subsequent arrest,
were circumstances likely to produce a sensation in
the family of the squatter. All the women had gathered
around Prudence, near the door of her cabin, and the
younger girls were attracted to that spot, as the particles of
matter are known to obey the laws of affinity. The males,
one boy of eight or ten years excepted, were collected near
the mill, where Thousandacres, apparently, was holding a
consultation with Tobit and the rest of the brotherhood;

among whom, I fancy, was no one entitled to be termed an
angel. Everybody seemed to be intently listening to the
different speakers, the females often turning their eyes towards
their male protectors, anxiously and with long protracted
gazes. Indeed, many of them looked in that direction,
even while they gave ear to the wisdom of Prudence
herself.

The excepted boy had laid himself, in a lounging, American
sort of an attitude, on a saw-log, near my prison, and
in a position that enabled him to see both sides of it, without
changing his ground. By the manner in which his eyes
were fastened on the “store-'us” I was soon satisfied that he
was acting in the character of a sentinel. Thus, my gaol
was certainly sufficiently secure, as the force of no man,
unaided and without implements, could have broken a passage
through the logs.

Having thus taken a look at the general aspect of things,
I had leisure to reflect on my situation, and the probable
consequences of my arrest. For my life I had no great apprehensions,
not as much as I ought to have had, under the
circumstances; but, it did not strike me that I was in any
great danger on that score. The American character, in
general, is not blood-thirsty, and that of New England less
so, perhaps, than that of the rest of the country. Nevertheless,
in a case of property, the tenacity of the men of
that quarter of the country was proverbial, and I came to
the conclusion that I should be detained, if possible, until
all the lumber could be got to market and disposed of, as
the only means of reaping the fruit of past labour. The
possibility depended on the escape or the arrest of Sureflint.
Should that Indian be taken, Thousandacres and his family
would be as secure as ever in their wilderness; but, on the
other hand, should he escape, I might expect to hear from
my friends in the course of the day. By resorting to a requisition
on 'squire Newcome, who was a magistrate, my
tenants might be expected to make an effort in my behalf,
when the only grounds of apprehension would be the consequences
of the struggle. The squatters were sometimes
dangerous under excitement, and when sustaining each
other, with arms in their hands, in what they fancy to be
their hard-earned privileges. There is no end to the delusions

of men on such subjects, self-interest seeming completely
to blind their sense of right; and I have often met
with cases in which parties who were trespassers, and in a
moral view, robbers, ab origine, have got really to fancy
that their subsequent labours (every new blow of the axe
being an additional wrong) gave a sort of sanctity to possessions,
in the defence of which they were willing to die. It
is scarcely necessary to say that such persons look only at
themselves, entirely disregarding the rights of others; but,
one wonders where the fruits of all the religious instruction
of the country are to be found, when opinions so loose and
acts so flagrant are constantly occurring among us. The
fact is, land is so abundant, and such vast bodies lie neglected
and seemingly forgotten by their owners, that the
needy are apt to think indifference authorizes invasions on
such unoccupied property; and their own labour once applied,
they are quick to imagine that it gives them a moral
and legal interest in the soil; though, in the eye of the law
and of unbiassed reason, each new step taken in what is
called the improvement of a “betterment” is but a farther
advance in the direction of wrong-doing.

I was reflecting on things of this sort, when, looking
through the cracks of my prison, to ascertain the state of
matters without, I was surprised by the appearance of a
man on horseback, who was entering the clearing on its
eastern side, seemingly quite at home in his course, though
he was travelling without even a foot-path to aid him. As
this man had a pair of the common saddle-bags of the day
on his horse, I at first took him for one of those practitioners
of the healing art, who are constantly met with in the new
settlements, winding their way through stumps, logs, morasses
and forests, the ministers of good or evil, I shall not
pretend to say which. Ordinarily, families like that of
Thousandacres do their own “doctoring;” but a case might
occur that demanded the wisdom of the licensed leech; and
I had just decided in my own mind that this must be one,
when, as the stranger drew nearer, to my surprise I saw
that it was no other than my late agent, Mr. Jason Newcome,
and the moral and physical factotum of Ravensnest!

As the distance between the mill that 'squire Newcome
leased of me, and that which Thousandacres had set up on

the property of Mooseridge, could not be less than five-and-twenty
miles, the arrival of this visiter at an hour so early
was a certain proof that he had left his own house long
before the dawn. It was probably convenient to pass
through the farms and dwellings of Ravensnest, on the
errand on which he was now bent, at an hour of the night
or morning when darkness would conceal the movement.
By timing his departure with the same judgment, it was
obvious he could reach home under the concealment of
the other end of the same mantle. In a word, this visit
was evidently one, in the objects and incidents of which
it was intended that the world at large should have no
share.

The dialogues between the members of the family of
Thousandacres ceased, the moment 'squire Newcome came
in view; though, as was apparent by the unmoved manner
in which his approach was witnessed, the sudden appearance
of this particular visiter produced neither surprise nor
uneasiness. Although it must have been a thing to be
desired by the squatters, to keep their “location” a secret,
more especially since the peace left landlords at leisure to
look after their lands, no one manifested any concern at
discovering this arrival in their clearing of the nearest
magistrate. Any one might see, by the manner of men,
women and children, that 'squire Newcome was no stranger,
and that his presence gave them no alarm. Even the early
hour of this visit was most probably that to which they
were accustomed, the quick-witted intellects of the young
fry causing them to understand the reason quite as readily
as was the case with their seniors. In a word, the guest
was regarded as a friend, rather than as an enemy.

Newcome was some little time, after he came into view,
in reaching the hamlet, if the cluster of buildings can be so
termed; and when he did alight, it was before the door
of a stable, towards which one of the boys now scampered,
to be in readiness to receive his horse. The beast disposed
of, the 'squire advanced to the spot where Thousandacres
and his elder sons still remained to receive him, or that near
the mill. The manner in which all parties shook hands,
and the cordiality of the salutations generally, in which
Prudence and her daughters soon shared, betokened something

more than amity, I fancied, for it looked very much
like intimacy.

Jason Newcome remained in the family group some eight
or ten minutes, and I could almost fancy the prescribed
inquiries about the “folks” (anglice, folk), the “general
state of health,” and the character of the “times,” ere the
magistrate and the squatter separated themselves from the
rest of the party, walking aside like men who had matters
of moment to discuss, and that under circumstances which
could dispense with the presence of any listeners.