gle that was certain
to carry with it all the tribes that dwelt within the influence of the
respective belligerents--this particular party of the Iroquois were
posted on the shores of the Oneida, a lake that lies some fifty miles
nearer to their own frontier than that which is the scene of our tale.

To have fled in a direct line for the Canadas would have exposed them to
the dangers of a direct pursuit, and the chiefs had determined to adopt
the expedient of penetrating deeper into a region that had now become
dangerous, in the hope of being able to retire in the rear of their
pursuers, instead of having them on their trail. The presence of the
women had induced the attempt at this ruse, the strength of these
feebler members of the party being unequal to the effort of escaping
from the pursuit of warriors. When the reader remembers the vast extent
of the American wilderness, at that early day, he will perceive that
it was possible for even a tribe to remain months undiscovered in
particular portions of it; nor was the danger of encountering a foe, the
usual precautions being observed, as great in the woods, as it is on the
high seas, in a time of active warfare.

The encampment being temporary, it offered to the eye no more than the
rude protection of a bivouac, relieved in some slight degree by the
ingenious expedients which suggested themselves to the readiness of
those who passed their lives amid similar scenes. One fire, that had
been kindled against the roots of a living oak, sufficed for the whole
party; the weather being too mild to require it for any purpose but
cooking. Scattered around this centre of attraction, were some fifteen
or twenty low huts, or perhaps kennels would be a better word, into
which their different owners crept at night, and which were also
intended to meet the exigencies of a storm.

These little huts were made of the branches of trees, put together with
some ingenuity, and they were uniformly topped with bark that had been
stripped from fallen trees; of which every virgin forest possesses
hundreds, in all stages of decay. Of furniture they had next to none.
Cooking utensils of the simplest sort were lying near the fire, a few
articles of clothing were to be seen in or around the huts, rifles,
horns, and pouches leaned against the trees, or were suspended from the
lower branches, and the carcasses of two or three deer were stretched to
view on the same natural shambles.

As the encamp