nding for many miles in densest wintry solitudes.
For this was the great hunting-ground of the Cherokee nation and
absolutely without population. His adventures were few and slight until
he fell in with Daniel Boon, camping that year near the head waters of
the Sewanee, who listened to his story with grave concern and a sane and
effective sympathy. He, too, advised the cessation of these ceaseless
wanderings, but he thought Stuart's letter evasive, somehow, and
counseled the boy to write to him once more, detailing these long
searches and their futility. Hamish had always realized that Stuart's
sentiments, although by no means shallow, for he was warmly attached to
his friends, were simple, direct, devoid of the subtlety that sometimes
characterized his mental processes. Life to him was precious, a
privilege, and its environment the mere incident.

He now replied that he had not dared divulge all the truth while Hamish
MacLeod was in the enfeebled condition that follows brain-fever, and had
been loath, too, to rob him of hope, only that he might forlornly mourn
his nearest and dearest. But since the fact must needs be revealed he
could yet say their sorrows were brief. In that drear dawn on the
plains of Taliquo the mother and child were killed in the same volley of
musketry, and afterward, as he ordered from time to time the ranks to
close up, he saw Sandy, who had been fighting in line with the troops,
lying on the ground, quite dead. "You may be sure of this," Stuart
added; "I took especial note of their fate, having from the first cared
much for them all."

The terrible certainty wrought a radical change in Hamish. From the
moment he seemed, instead of the wild, impulsive, affectionate boy, a
stern reserved man. In the following year he enlisted in a provincial
regiment mustered to join the British regulars sent again by General
Amherst to the relief of the Carolina frontier; for the difficulties in
Canada being set at rest, troops could be put in the field in the south,
and vengeance for the tragedy of Fort Loudon became a menace to the
Cherokees, who had grown arrogant and aggressive, stimulated to further
cruelties by their triumphs and immunity. Nevertheless, Atta-Kulla-Kulla
went forth to meet the invaders, and earnestly attempted to negotiate a
treaty. It was well understood now, however, that he was in no sense a
representative man of his nation, and his mission failed.
Lieutenant-Colonel James Grant, on who