University of Virginia Library

10. CHAPTER X.

Gordon and his attendant entered at once.
The Dahcotah chief was sitting at the fire, carving
a pipe-stem. On their entrance he looked up, and
held out his hand. The women stunned the
visitors with their clamor, and the cry of `strangers
arrived' brought the whole band to the lodge
to gaze and ask questions. The wife of Wawnahton
cast a grateful glance of recognition on
Gordon, and spread a robe for him to sit on. She
then took off his moccasins, and gave him others
for present use. A dog was knocked in the
head, singed, and consigned to the kettle with all
haste. The chief took his pipe and otter-skin tobacco
pouch, and gave them to the visitors, in order
that they might smoke. The dog feast was
scarcely over, when they were asked to another in

a neighboring tent, and the day passed in the exercise
of over zealous hospitality.

The women set up the soldier's lodge in the
middle of the camp, for the use of the strangers,
and brought wood and water, without presuming
to enter. Thither our adventurers repaired, with
their blankets and horse furniture. One of their
saddles was missing, but as soon as Wawnahton
was apprised of the circumstance, a soldier, by his
order, perambulated the camp, proclaiming the
fact, and requiring whosoever might be in possession
of the lost article, to make instant restitution,
on pain of having his or her blanket and lodge cut
to pieces. A general search took place, and it
was discovered that a starving dog had dragged
the saddle into the bushes to eat the leather.[57]
The chief replaced it with one of his own.

At night the soldiers and old men assembled in
the lodge, to smoke and converse. When they
took leave, Wawnahton remained, and asked the
occasion of Gordon's visit. It was readily communicated.

The chief pondered awhile without speaking.
At last, having knocked the ashes from his pipe
for the tenth time, he broke silence. `Well, I
knew that Nopah Keon had a sick white woman
in his lodge, but had I known that she belonged to
you, he should not have kept her. But if you are
in want of a woman, you need not go so far as his
camp. Choose what girl you like best in my
band, and I will get her for you. Nay, you shall
have one of my wives, if you like that better.'

To this generous offer, Gordon returned a decided

negative. It was in vain to attempt to
make Wawnahton comprehend the nature of his
feelings toward Flora. In the opinion of the Indian,
a woman was but a kind of slave, or beast of
burthen. He might prefer one to another on account
of superior beauty or industry, or because
she was the mother of his children; but he had
no more conception of such love as Gordon's, than
of the most abstruse problem in Euclid. `Why
is your mind so set upon this girl?' said he. `Can
she work moccasins better than others? Can she
carry a heavier pack or dress a buffalo robe better?'
Being answered in the negative, he added,
`Well, you people with hats have strange notions.
But I will do as you would have me, notwithstanding.'

Gordon now proposed to the Dahcotah chief to
set off in quest of Miss Cameron on the morrow;
but the latter coolly replied that there was no occasion
for haste. Nothing is ever gained by hurrying
an Indian; so our hero was obliged to wait
with what patience he might.

During the night the storm ceased and the wind
fell. At sunrise the cold was excessive. The
smallest twigs were covered with a thick rime,
and the atmosphere was full of minute glittering
particles through which the sun looked, shorn of
his beams. At noon parhelia were seen in the
firmament, five in number, so brilliant that the
true Phœbus could not be distinguished from the
false. A solitary buffalo that approached the
camp, was shot, and a little redice trickled from the
wound. The squaws went to take a part of his

flesh, but he hardened under their knives, and
they were compelled to finish their task with
hatchets. The nearest wood was twelve miles
distant, and to attempt to reach it in such weather,
was certain death. The camp could not be removed
in these circumstances, and thus it remained
three days longer.

The fourth morning after, was mild for the season,
and the camp was raised. The horses and
dogs were laden, the tents were struck, and the
women made up their packs. All took the line
of march. The men walked or rode indolently
along, and the women followed, each bending under
an immense burthen, with perhaps an infant
on the top of all. The soldiers marched in front
and beat the path; and at every two or three
miles the whole procession stopped, to smoke and
eat.

Toward night they arrived at another island, or
oasis, near which a herd of buffaloes were grazing.
Arrived at a suitable spot to encamp, the foremost
soldier struck down a spear, surmounted with the
skin of a raven, his staff of office. As the band
came up, a dog passed this sacred emblem of authority.
It was instantly transfixed by a shaft
from one of the soldiers: a young man, who had
ran to arrest the animal, had his robe cut to pieces,
and was severely beaten with their bows. On
any other occasion, such an indignity would have
been requited with a stab, but the soldiers are an
honorable kind of police, and the exercise or
abuse of their authority is never resented. In
this case, their rigor was intended to prevent the

buffaloes from being frightened away, and they
took further measures to the same purpose. The
legs of the dogs were tied to their necks, the
horses were picketed, and the tents were pitched,
in precisely the same order in which they had
stood the night before.

A few of the wild cattle were killed for immediate
use. In the morning, the camp broke up,
and proceeded; but not to enlarge upon the incidents
of the journey, which would be a mere repetition
of what has already been related, after
six days' march, they arrived at the camp of Nopah
Keon. It was on the side of a small lake,
affording just wood enough for the kettles. A
scattering discharge of fire arms gave testimony
of the satisfaction of both parties at meeting; and
some hours were spent in feasting and rejoicing.

Gordon found no difficulty in penetrating into
the lodge where Flora lay. In an instant he was
on his knees at her side. `Flora, dear Flora,' he
cried, `nothing but death shall again sever us.'

The tears swam in her eyes; she smiled, and
faintly replied, `I had expected this of you, William;
but my eyes were long, long, wearied with
looking for you.'

`Do you think then, that I would have delayed
an instant, if I had known where to seek you, and
could have dragged one limb after the other?
Take back the unjust reproach.'

`I did not mean to reproach you; I had all
confidence in your affection; but I thought you
were dead.'

Flora informed our hero, that when she was
carried off, the agitation of her mind, and the fatigue
of her journey on horseback, had brought on
a fever, that had reduced her to the brink of the
grave. She had, however, received no maltreatment,
but had fared as well as the Indians themselves.
Her illness had been aggravated, she
said, by a proposal from Nopah Keon to become
his wife, which was interpreted to her by a trader
on a visit to the camp. She had been put in bodily
fear too, by one of the four wives of her captor,
who was jealous of a new competitor for her
lord's favor. And she had also suffered from the
urgency with which the old women recommended
their prescriptions; for with Indians, as with white
people, every one has a remedy for every disease,
and presses his advice. Neither had the dancing
and singing, intended to effect her cure, been of
any advantage, but rather the contrary.

She now inquired for her father, and Gordon,
afraid of a relapse, told her that Cameron was
severely wounded, but would, he hoped, soon
recover. He said too that the old man had made
her redemption from captivity the price of her
hand.

The crone who had been singing and shaking
a rattle by Flora's side, now imagined that Gordon's
visit portended no good to the interests of
Nopah Keon. She left the patient and repaired
to the lodge of the Grand Medicine, into which, as
she belonged to the fraternity, she was instantly
admitted.[58] Nopah Keon was celebrating the
mysterious rites of the institution, when she informed

him of what she had seen, but he was too
much engrossed with his own dignity to suffer his
occupation to be interrupted by anything relating
to a woman.

When Nopah Keon carried Flora off, he had no
other view than to deliver her into the hands of
M'Leod, and get the promised reward. As soon
as his party was out of danger of pursuit, he despatched
a messenger to inform that wretch of the
success of his machinations. The envoy did not
readily find the Scotchman, and in the meanwhile
the purpose of Nopah Keon changed. Nature
proved too strong for him: Miss Cameron's surpassing
beauty, though obscured by sickness,
awakened feelings in his bosom to which he had
hitherto been a stranger, and for which he could
not have accounted himself. He was wont to say
that he loved one of his four wives because she
had a still tongue, another for having given him
five boys, the third for her industry, and the fourth
because she was stronger than a horse. But if
any one had asked why he loved Flora better
than all four, he could only have replied, that such
was his pleasure. The band laughed at the love-struck
barbarian, for what they deemed his folly,
and his wives loaded him with reproaches. `See,'
said one of his wives, `your favorite cannot live
in a lodge. She is sick already, and will never
recover.' `She cannot carry so large a burthen
as a girl seven years old,' cried his prolific spouse.
`Who would have such an ugly, pale creature?'
exclaimed the third. `What is she good for?'
shouted the fourth.

Nevertheless his resolution remained unchanged,
and a trader who came to his camp with a
dog sledge loaded with merchandise, served him
as an interpreter to declare his love to its object.
He was in no wise daunted by the indignant scorn
and loathing with which she heard the proposal.
On the contrary, he resolved to compel her submission,
as soon as her health should be re-established,
for the idea of winning her heart by gentle
means never entered his head.

When M'Leod arrived, he was hospitably received,
but when he demanded that the prisoner
should be given up to him, Napah Keon desired
him to look round him, and take some other in
her stead. For a moment he was speechless
with astonishment, and then burst forth in a strain
of invective. But his rage made no more impression
upon the savage than rain does upon marble.

`Brother,' said He who had twice Flown, `it is
clear that you have been very ill educated, since
you talk so much like an angry woman. Your
heart is very weak. A man should bear so trifling
a loss with patience. There are plenty of
women in my camp, and I will give you any one
you please, if you cannot do without a wife. You
see that I am willing to deal justly with you; so
be not wroth, brother.'

`I will return with a band of half breeds, and
kill every one of you, if you do not give me the
white woman.'

`Ha, ha! The dogs dare not come to hunt
upon my grounds, unless a hundred together. I
shall grow gray waiting for them.'

`You will see whether it be so or not.'

`Be pacified, brother. Give me your hand in
friendship; and I will make up the loss to you.
There are many girls here that I can dispose of.'

Finding remonstrance useless, M'Leod gave
over. He refused to smoke with Nopah Keon,
or take his hand; affronts which the Dahcotah
laid up in his memory, to be remembered at a fitting
opportunity.

To return from this retrospect to the course of
our story; after the Great Medicine dance was
over, the two chiefs held a consultation. Wawnahton
urged on the unwilling attention of his
countryman, that four women were enough for
any man, and that by retaining Flora he would
incur the ill will of all the whites, and that she
was the wife of his comrade. If he must have a
fifth spouse, there was no father in the tribe but
would gladly bestow his daughter on such a warrior
and hunter. To each and all of these reasons
the chief was as deaf as the adder.

That the English girl could do no labor, he
knew, he said, but his other women should work
for her. He cared not for the enmity of the
whites; they were a race of old women, created
by the Great Spirit to make guns and blankets,
and to be servants to the Indians. If they should
withdraw their trade, (the worst evil they could inflict,)
the Yanktons need not care, as long as there
was wood enough in their country for bows, and
buffaloes for food and clothing. He had buried
the woman in his heart, and his wife she should be.

`You speak like a boy,' said Wawnahton, `not

like a wise man and a chief. This woman is not
a fit wife for a Dahcotah: moreover, her husband
is a soldier, and my comrade, and she must be
restored to him. He will kill you if you refuse.
Listen to me: return her, and I will give you ten
swift horses: If you will not, you shall be a chief
no longer. I will cut your lodges; and my people
shall kill all your horses and dogs. None
will listen to your voice afterwards. Think well
of it.'

Nopah Keon was compelled to submit. He
might brave the resentment of Gordon and the
whites with impunity, as he thought; but with
Wawnahton he was more likely to come in contact.

If he should, be contumacy, cause the horses of
his band, on which they mainly depended for support,
to be killed, he well knew that his authority
and influence were at an end. This was the evil
he most dreaded, and he therefore yielded with
the best grace he could.

`It is but a woman,' he said, `and two chiefs
should not quarrel for so small a matter. I will
take the horses you offer, for my people are much
in want of them. Take her, and do what you
will with her.'

She was soon conveyed by Gordon and Dés
Champs to the soldiers' lodge. This was contrary
to Indian usages, no woman having been ever
before suffered to profane that sanctuary. When
informed that she was a prisoner no longer, she
held out her hand to her lover. `It is of little
worth, dear William,' said she, `but such as it is,

you have won it over and over again. Take it:
my heart goes with it.'

The horses were easily procured by Wawnahton,
and given as the price of her ransom. In
two days a dog sledge was made, with axes
and knives only. This vehicle is constructed of
two boards, about half an inch thick, eight inches
wide, and ten feet long. They are fastened together
with cletes, and the end is turned up like the
toe of a skate, that it may slip easily over the snow.
The whole is sewed with thongs of raw hide. Such
as are intended for the conveyance of the traveller,
have a structure upon them, in shape like the body
of a sleigh, made of parchment. Such a one was
arranged for Flora. The women of the band
gave her buffalo robes, and the grateful wife of the
chief bestowed upon her and Gordon her whole
stock of ornamented moccasins, the work of a
year; and which had been intended for herself and
her husband. Wawnahton resolved to escort them
to Pembinaw, with thirty of his best warriors. All
preparations for the journey were completed, and
even in the short time they had been in the camp,
Flora's condition was visibly improved.

In the morning all was ready for departure.
The young lady was carefully placed in her little
cariole, and covered with robes. The chief's wife
laid her hands on her head, wept and sung her regret
that she should never behold her again, her
hopes that she might find her husband faithful and
kind, and that she might be the joyful mother of a
boy, before the year should elapse. This ceremony

over, they departed, and were saluted as they
had been on their arrival.

Nothing material occurred on the journey. Flora's
health mended from day to day, and by the
time they came in sight of Pembinaw river she
was almost well, and Gordon's wound was nearly
healed.

About two miles from the fort, they were perceived
by its inmates. Great terror and confusion
was the consequence, until one of the company's
clerks ascertained, by means of a spy glass, that
two white men, and a woman, were among the
Indians. Wawnahton and his men did not care
to go to the fort, though Gordon endeavored to
persuade them, and assured them they might do so
in safety. They remembered that the band of
Nopah Keon had lately killed several of the colonists,
and judging of the customs of the whites by
their own, they dared not venture among the
friends of the slain. A long colloquy was held
between Wawnahton and Gordon, the former
pressing upon the conviction of the latter the magnitude
of his services, and the propriety of giving
him a suitable reward. He wanted a few guns,
blankets, kettles, axes, &c. for himself and his
people, and he did not forget to mention that a
quantity of silver brooches, arm-bands, wampum,
beads, and above all a great keg of spirits, would
be very acceptable. They might be sent, he said,
by De Reinville, to Lac au Travers. Gordon
would fain have had him repair to the Company's
store at once, and there receive all that could be
spared, but no man is equally brave at all times,

and Wawnahton was not just then in a humor to
throw away his body. Gordon promised, however,
to comply with all his requisitions in his own
way, and after shaking hands very affectionately,
they parted forever.