The Pathfinder: Or the Inland Sea

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rom the rest of mankind, their ideas, ordinary language, and attire being as strongly indicative of their calling as the opinions, speech, and dress of a Turk denote a Mussulman. Although the Pathfinder was scarcely in the prime of life, Mabel had met him with a steadiness that may have been the consequence of having braced her nerves for the inter

y. He has an Indian name fit for a chief, but, as the language is not always easy for the inexperienced to pronounce we naturally turn it into English, and call him the Big Sarpent. You are not to suppose,

ndians gazed on each other steadily, and the Tuscarora adva

he hailing of friendly vessels on the ocean. But speaking of water, it reminds me of my young friend, Jasper W

to learn, considering the school to which you have been sent. This is my niece Mabel; I call her Magnet, for a reason she never dr

his keen dark eye, at the same time, on the suffused face of the girl; “and I fee

, and that with propriety; though, on the whole,

e phrases which belong to the land; for we are seld

o a great way with a seafaring man. Now, if the truth were known, Mas

?” said Magnet quickly; for she dreaded a premature display

knowing it; by sufferance, as it were, the water being so much the more powerful and the largest. But there is no end to conceit in this world: for a fellow who never saw sa

ad often pined to sail; but he had also a natural regard for the broad sheet on

“may be true as to the Atlantic; but we hav

share in his mess; and I will confess that one gets no venison at sea. Master Western, civility to girls, at your time of life, comes as easy as taking in the slack of the

ay to her esteem by his gentle but frank manner of manifesting his care; homage that woman always wishes to receive, but which is never so flattering or so agreeable as when it comes from the young to those of their own age — from the manly to the gentle. Like most of those who pass their time excluded from the society of the softer sex, young Western was earnest, sincere, and kind in

osed it. The Indians were silent and industrious the appetite of the aboriginal American for venison being seemingly inappeasable, while the two white men were communicative, each of the latter b

unger of the travellers was so far appeased that they began to pick and choose among the savory morsels

urned his white companion; “we bordermen handle the paddle an

e lead-line, the reef-point and the top-rope? The paddle is a good

ages. The paint of a Mingo is not the paint of a Delaware; and he who should expect to see a warrior in the dress of a squaw might be disappointed. I am not yet very old, but I have lived in

derstand his own character. Now, there is my brother-in-law, the Sergeant: he is as good a fellow as ever broke a biscuit, in his way; but what is he, after all? Why, nothing but a soldier. A sergeant, to be sure, but that is a sort of a soldier, you know. When he wished to marry poor Bridget, my sister, I told the girl what he was, as

conscience as well as a good character. I have never slept more sweetly than when I have fi’t the Mingos, though it is the law with me to fight always like a white man and never like an Indian. The Sarpent, here, has his fashions, and I have

y land. The sea is what my poor sister Bridget used to call a ‘purifying place,’ and one is out of the way

the difference between the sun and the moon. I am glad, friend Cap, that we have met, however, if it be only that you may tell the Big Sarpent here that there are lakes in which the water is salt. We have been pretty much of one mind since our acquaintance began, and if the Mohican has only half the faith in

or the Serpent need doubt what you have said concerning both, though I confess myself to some difficulty in swallowing the tale about there being inland seas at all, and still more that there is any sea of fre

time in His very presence, as it might be, see things differently — I mean, such of us as have white natur’s . A red-skin has his notions, and it is right that it should be so; and if they are not exactly the same as a Christian white man’s, there is

ccustomed to make all snug aloft, and to show the proper canvas, than to pray when the hurricane comes, I know that we are but helpless mortals at times, and I hope I pay rever

he delicious spring at which to slake his thirst. It is unreasonable to think that He ma

, for many years, he had pertinaciously insisted could not be true. Unwilling to give up the point and, at the same time, unable to maintain it against a rea

words — I do not say that it may not be fresh on the surface; the Atlantic is sometimes fresh on the surface, near the mouths of great rivers; b

o let the matter rest, and

rved the Pathfinder, after a short pause, “and well kn

a,” interr

h the rifle, and on a trail, and in the way of game and scouting; for, though I can use the spear and the paddle, I pride not myself on either. The youth Jasper, there, who is discoursing with the Sergeant’s daughter, is a different cratur’; for he

cknowledge, has overlaid all my seamanship. Arrowhead, there, said the smoke came from a pale-face’s fire, an

. We should be as useless on a trail, or in carrying tidings through the wilderness, as so many woodchucks, did we not soon come to a knowledge of these niceties. Eau-douce, as we call him, is so fond of the water, that he gathered a damp s

e of Arrowhead’s to see

as its own laws, as well as its own skin. It was many years before I could master all these higher branches of a forest education; for red-skin knowledge doesn’t come as ea

things so well. I suppose it would be no great matter for a man regularly brought up to

abits, quite as much as the Indian in getting white-skin ways. As for the re

be in the Chinaman or a Dutchman. For my own part, I am much of that way of thinking too; fo

linters and cut with knives, the fire raging around their naked bodies, and death staring them in the face? Until you can find me a Chinaman, or a Christian m

ter Cap, glancing his eyes about him uneasily at the apparently endless arc

f the venison as his bonne bouche; “for though these torments belong only to the red-skin natur’, in

subjects. I have not served much in the royal navy, it is true; but I have served, and that is something; and, in the way of privateering and worrying the enemy in his

n burnt by exposure to a bright red; “though I mistrust that some may think it narrow; and narrow it is, if you wish it

loudly as to cause him instantly to repent the indiscretion. “No man, now

e ocean ha

ever so savage, unless it possesses the art of ship building. No, no! the people who live on the shores of the Atlantic need fear but little for their

edication I have received, I should think it at this very moment, a risky journey to go over the very ground that lies between us and the garrison, in the present state of this frontier. T

cruise so near the guns of

re to be on their trails. The Sarpent has come up one side of the river, and I have come up the other, in order to scout for the outlying rascals, while Jasper brought up the canoe, like a bold-hearted sailor as he is. The Serg

of him for his readiness; though I suppose

d an elbow in the stream, with his eyes fastened on the eddies. Of all the risky journeys,

’ll play with him in his own fashion, as long as he pleases, long bows or close quarters; but to be shot like a turtle asleep is not to my humor. If it were no

return is much longer, and almost as bad as the road to go on. Tru

om, however, a brave man, and had often faced death with coolness, though never in the frightful forms in which it presented itself under the brief but graphic picture of his companion. It was too late to retreat;

oughts had found time to glance through his mind, “that we shall

nd swift miles too, as the river r

ll stretch along starboard

na

ave to pick our way thr

een cleared of its flood-wood by the troops. It will be f

hich you speak from shooting us as we double a hea

n stripped of hair, skin, and all, hadn’t the Lord fi’t of my side. I never go into a skrimmage, friend mariner, without thin

and to go into action with nothing in our minds but the business before us —

e saved his scalp that day; for it had fairly started, and half a minute more would have left him without the war-lock. When the Mohican squeezes my hand, and intermates that I befriended him in that matter, I tell him no; it was the Lord who led me to the only spot where execution could be done, or his necessit

stem; we have but a few hours of sun, and had better be drifting down this said

ce a child, and with the manner of life of those who lived in the frontier garrisons. Unconsciously she had become deeply interested, and her thoughts had been too intently directed to these matters to allow any of the less agreeable subjects discussed by those so near to reach her ears. The bustle of departure put an end to the conversation, and, the baggage of the sco

harm. If there are a dozen Mingos within ten miles of us, some of ’em are on the heights, or in the trees,

hose interest in the hazard of his situation had much increased since

the scent is strong. Do you not see, Eau-douce, that if any Mingos have seen our path below the falls, they will strike off towards this smoke, and that they will naturally conclude that they who began by going up stream will end by going up st

hey moved towards the wind-row, “they cannot know anything about the Serge

he utmost care on the impression left on the leaves by the little foot of Mabel; “unless this old salt-wa

u mean, P

trary in our gifts, though yours belong to the lakes and mine to the woods. Hark’e, Jasper,” continued the s

ne with the pretty ni

I can try this Atlantic oceaner, and then all parties will become better acquainted. We shall fi

ed by Cap’s superciliousness; but Mabel’s fair face, light, agile form, and wi

t’s daughter will be

She doesn’t look like a skeary thing, at all. Leave it t

d only drown both. If the cano

hall we smoke the pipe of

dropped, as the party had reached the canoe so often mentioned, and fewer