rom the
Down-East country, a representative of the Bay State, from which he had
been seduced by the arguments of his old friend Josiah Jones, to go "a
pedlering" with the latter to the new settlements in the West; where the
situation of the colonists, so far removed from all markets, promised
uncommon advantages to the adventurous trader. These had been in a
measure realised on the Upper Ohio; but the prospect of superior gains in
Kentucky had tempted the two friends to extend their speculations
further; and in an evil hour they embarked their assorted notions and
their own bodies in a flatboat on the Ohio; in the descent of which it
was their fortune to be stripped of every thing, after enduring risks
without number, and daily attacks from, Indians lying in wait on the
banks of the river, which misadventures had terminated in the capture of
their boat, and the death of Josiah, the unlucky projector of the
expedition. Pardon himself barely escaping with his life. These
calamities were the more distasteful to the worthy Dodge, whose
inclinations were of no warlike cast, and whose courage never rose to the
fighting point, as he freely professed, until goaded into action by sheer
desperation. He had "got enough," as he said, "of the everlasting Injuns,
and of Kentucky, where there was such a shocking deal of 'em that a
peaceable trader's scalp was in no more security than a rambling
scout's;" and cursing his bad luck, and the memory of the friend who had
cajoled him into ruin, difficulty, and constant danger, his sole desire
was now to return to the safer lands of the East, which he expected to
effect most advantageously by advancing to some of the South-eastern
stations, and throwing himself in the way of the first band of militia
whose tour of duty in the district was completed, and who should be
about to return to their native state. He had got enough of the Ohio as
well as the Indians; the wilderness-road possessed fewer terrors, and
therefore appeared to his imagination the more eligible route of escape.

CHAPTER X.

Dodge's story, which was not without its interest to Roland, though the
rapidity of their progress through the woods, and the constant necessity
of being on the alert, kept him a somewhat inattentive listener, was
brought to an abrupt close by the motions of Telie Doe, who, having
guided the party for several miles with great confidence, began at last
to hesitate, and betray symptoms of doubt and