CHAPTER IX

THE WHITE EAGLE OF THE IROQUOIS

The Indian who had raised his scalping-knife drew back, and a plumed and painted chieftain stepped forward. It was none other than the renowned "White Eagle"--the greatest chief amongst the Six Nations. The same daring and unconquered spirit who had made his escape from the frigate, as she lay anchored in the river below Quebec.

"Stay! Let me see the young palefaces, who do not run like the hares," he commanded.

As he bent over the prostrate youths, he was unable to restrain a slight, involuntary start. A sudden gleam of remembrance flashed across his countenance, and chased away for an instant the ferocity of the savage. He recognised in them the young prisoners who, aboard the Sapphire, had dared to offer him a drink of water at the risk of losing their own promised liberty.

Then, in a loud voice which all could hear, he uttered those words, which caused Jack to open his eyes for an instant--

"Stay! He is the paleface brother of the White Eagle."

The braves quickly gathered around him, for they were all astounded at these words; but he continued--

"These are not the children of the Canadas. They are the friends of the red man, and the children of the Yengeese. They come from the land of the sun-rising. They were prisoners with White Eagle, in the big canoe with wings, in the river of Canada, and when the children of the French king treated the Eagle as the squaw of a Delaware, and even offered him the bitter salt water to drink, the hearts of these children of Miquon burned with pity for the red chief, and they offered him sweet water to quench his thirst, but even that was not permitted by these dogs of Canada."

"Ugh! The children of the French Father are snakes and cowards. They are singing-birds which speak a lie," cried one of the warriors.

"The Algonquins are crows, who fly to their rookeries when they hear the scream of the eagle," cried another.

"Listen!" continued the chief. "The French are women, like the Delawares, and should wear petticoats. They offered gold and fire-water for the scalp of an Iroquois chief, but the caged eagle despised their threats, and while his captors slept, his proud spirit burst the bars, and his strong wings bore him aloft, back to the hunting-grounds of his fathers."

Exclamations of pride and assent greeted these words, for the prowess and courage of their leader were recognised by all of them.

"When the White Eagle of his tribe gained his freedom once more, his heart went back to the Yengeese prisoners who had dared to show him a kindness, and he longed to see their faces again, for an Iroquois never forgets a kindness, though he quickly repays an insult, and now the Manitou has sent hither my paleface friends. They are brave, for they do not run even from my warriors. The white blood shall be washed from their veins, and when their wounds are healed they shall be adopted into my tribe, for the Great Spirit has said, that between the children of Miquon and the red man there shall be peace, and the hatchet shall be buried so deeply that none shall ever find it again."

These remarkable words, uttered by the red chief, contained both wisdom and prophecy, though expressed in that flowery and boastful language which has always been a peculiarity of the North American savage.

Quickly, then, medicinal herbs were brought from far and near to heal the boys' wounds, and all the knowledge and skill of the tribe were used to restore them to life and health. Fortunately their wounds were not serious, and soon they were able to sit up and to walk, and then they learnt how fortunate they had been. They thanked God in that moment for all His preserving care, and especially that they were led to do that simple act of kindness to the great chief aboard the frigate.

In accordance with a peculiar Indian custom, water was then brought from the river, and the usual rites of adoption were performed. When the white blood had been washed away from their veins, the chief declared them to be his brothers and members of his tribe.

They were provided with deer-skin shirts and leggings, embroidered with quills and fine bead work. Indian moccasins were placed upon their feet, and belts of wampum around their waists, while the feathers of a newly-killed hawk served as crests or head-gear. Except that their faces were a little paler than those of their companions, they might easily have been taken for young Indian braves, just entering upon their first war-path.

Then it only remained to find Indian names for them, so they called Jamie "Red Feather," for when they found him his head and face were covered with blood, as he lay upon the ground, and so they dyed the hawk-feathers that served as his crest a deep crimson. And Jack they called the "Black Hawk," for they said, though his face was pale, his spirit was as fierce, and his eyes as keen, as the bird of prey whose plumes he bore. So they left his feathers black.

"So now we're both Iroquois braves, Black Hawk!" said Jamie, as soon as they were left together.

"Yes, and the brothers of White Eagle, too!" laughed his companion.

"Well, I suppose it's a great honour they've conferred upon us, so we must not grumble."

"The greatest honour that an Indian can confer. And for a time I shouldn't mind it, at any rate, until we can make our escape to the settlements of Pennsylvania or Virginia, if it were not for those horrible, reeking trophies that our comrades carry at their girdles."

"Ah! the scalps, you mean----"

"Yes. Do you know that I've counted no less than fifteen fresh scalps amongst them, every one of which was this morning rooted where God had placed it."

"Horrible! What can we do?"

"Nothing!"

"Are we the only survivors?"

"Some of the Algonquins escaped, I think, and a few of the Frenchmen, who made for the forest, but none of those who entered the canoe, for there she is. She was captured and brought back again."

"And Major Ridout?" asked Jamie. "What has become of him? Is he dead, too?"

"I fear so, but all the bodies have been dragged into the forest and hidden. I suppose the chief did that to save us a little pain, for he probably knows that we are unaccustomed to such a sight."

"I'm glad to hear that, for it shows that he possesses a sense of decency and good feeling, although he's such a mighty redskin chief."

"And 'tis certain that he remembers a kindness, too, however small," said Jack. "And it's my opinion that he's not at all a bad fellow, but as generous as he is brave. He remembered us at once, and we owe him our lives, and I intend to thank him when I get the chance."

"We owe our lives also to the fact that we stood our ground, when the others ran away, for if we had taken either to the canoes or the forest the chief would probably not have come our way, and we should have been scalped by his braves."

"So once more the path of duty has been the path of safety, as old Dr. Birch was so fond of saying."

"The only pleasant feature, apart from our marvellous escape, that I can see, is that the Iroquois as a part of the Six Nations are allied with the English against the French in this war, and they speak of the English king as their Great Father across the water."

During this time the Indians, who had not followed the fugitives into the forest, had been overhauling the three big canoes which belonged to the fur-traders, and examining their contents.

They had made a great capture, for the canoes were deeply laden with provisions, arms, ammunition and trading goods. The first thing that White Eagle did was to pour out all the fire-water into the river, lest his men should drink it, for he knew what dire consequences would ensue to the whole band if that "devil in solution" were only permitted to pass their lips.

That night they camped on the same clearing where the battle had been fought, but next morning at sunrise they took the captured canoes along with their own, and paddled rapidly up-stream towards Lake Ontario. The youths were both invited into the chief's canoe, and as their wounds were still painful, they took no part in the paddling, but remained sitting in the bottom of the canoe, or lying upon the skins which had belonged to Major Ridout.

The chief and several of his men spoke a little broken English, and one spoke the Canadian patois, for he had been a prisoner amongst the Algonquin tribes for some time, so that they were able to converse a little during the day.

Towards evening they reached the "Thousand Islands," where the St. Lawrence broadens out into a lake studded with a multitude of islets, just before it leaves Lake Ontario. Here the hand of the great Landscape Painter seems to have made the "beauty spot" of the world, and our heroes were charmed and even roused to a pitch of enthusiasm, as they passed one green, verdant, or pine-wooded island after another, while the setting sun, flinging its last ruddy beams upon the trees and the water, completed the enchanting picture.

"'Tis well to be a red man when the Great Manitou gives His children such hunting and fishing grounds as these," said Jamie to the chief, for he had been deeply stirred by the beauty that surrounded him.

"The Great Spirit loves His red children," said the chief solemnly. "He made for them the fish in the stream, and the deer in the forest; but He has forgotten them for a while, for they have displeased Him, and the children of the sun-rising have chased them from their hunting-grounds."

Jamie made no reply, for he saw that the chief's heart was not a little sad, for they were approaching Fort Frontenac at the entrance of the lake, where the presence of the French behind their wooden palisades was a constant reminder to the Indians that even the graves and the hunting-grounds of their fathers were defiled by the presence of the paleface children of the Canadas.

That night they camped on one of the islands, but long before daybreak they departed and stole swiftly but silently past the fort, and entered the broad waters of Lake Ontario. There was just a chance that some of the survivors had reached the fort and alarmed the soldiers, but all was quiet as they paddled quickly by. Count Frontenac, who established the fort, was a clever soldier, but even to this day his name is remembered with hatred by the Iroquois for his severity and cruelty.

And now they were entering their own country, for the Iroquois claimed as their homeland all that great tract of country that lies south of Lake Ontario, from the Hudson River and Lake Champlain on the east, away to the ridges of the Blue Mountains behind Virginia and westward some little way beyond the Falls of Niagara, and the eastern shores of Lake Erie; but by right of conquest they claimed much more, for they had conquered all the surrounding tribes, from the river of Canada on the east, to the southern shores of Lake Michigan on the west, far away southwards to the Ohio Valley.

At the present time, however, the wigwams and lodges of the White Eagle were pitched on the banks of a small stream that flowed through the forest to the south of the Great Falls.

Though they still thought much of their late comrades, the youths had now become more cheerful, and their wounds had nearly healed, thanks to the kind attention of the Indians. They had even begun to admire these fierce Iroquois who had adopted them. They were not nearly so bad as they were described by the French. They were lords of nature, these children of the forest, and had desired nothing more than to be left alone in their happy hunting-grounds. It was the paleface who had been the intruder and the plunderer. At first the red men had welcomed the palefaces, and received them as brothers, but the baser types of the settlers, the outcasts and pariahs of the settlements, and especially the hated "Rum-carriers," had taken advantage of, and had traded upon, the childishness, the ignorance and the simplicity of the Indians, with the result that outrage, vengeance and border wars had been the result. The insults of Champlain were never forgotten by the Iroquois. On the other hand the compact made between Miquon (William Penn) and the Indians was never broken by the Delawares, till the white men broke it themselves.

Several times during their progress along the shores of the lake smoke had been perceived, rising above the tree-tops in the forest. The keen eyes of the chief, who was in the first canoe, never relaxed their vigilance for a moment, for though they were almost in their own country, yet at any hour they might be set upon by a marauding band of French Indians, who were out for scalps.

Each evening they would draw in to the bank, set a watch, by posting scouts some little way into the forest, then, lighting a fire, they would cook their evening meal. Oftentimes this would consist of a fine buck that had been killed during the day, as they coasted along by the edge of the forest-lined bank, or sometimes of the sturgeon and salmon taken from the lake.

The lads noticed that several times, when smoke had been observed, that the chief ordered the boats to make a wide detour, as though to avoid a possible enemy. At other times the boats would pass close in as though there were no danger. Jamie was determined to find out the reason of this, so the next time that he saw a faint column of blue smoke he remarked to the chief--

"Look, White Eagle! There's more smoke ahead!"

But the chief, who had seen it long before, merely remarked--

"Iroquois smoke!"

How he could tell the difference between one smoke and another the lads could never make out, for he seemed unable to explain it to them; but that he did know, and could often tell something of the people who fed the fire by the tell-tale column of smoke, they never doubted.

Once, as the White Eagle looked long and keenly at a very faint column of blue smoke, about half-a-mile inland, Jamie thought that for an instant he could trace a somewhat puzzled and anxious look clouding the face of the chief; but it passed as quickly as it came, and the faintest promise of a smile spread over his countenance, as though the smoke recalled pleasant memories.

"Is that Iroquois smoke, too, chief?" he asked.

"No Iroquois smoke this time," he replied

"Can it be an enemy, then?"

"No enemy."

"Then who can he be who has lit that fire?"

"Paleface!" ejaculated the chief.