XIIROBERT CARRIES BAD NEWS
He was a fresh-complexioned young man in red uniform coat and red trousers buttoned into gaiters at the calf, and cocked hat, and wore a sword, like a soldier.
“On what business? I am Major George Washington of the Virginia militia.”
“Your servant, sir,” said the young man. “I am Ensign Edward Ward of Captain William Trent’s company from the frontier, to establish a fort in our Ohio country beyond the Great Mountains. You are safe returned, Major Washington? What of the French? They will advance?”
“You will be first, sir, if you act boldly,” Washington replied. “Is this a movement by the militia?”
“We are Independents, sent to protect the holdings of the Ohio Company along the Ohio.”
“Where is Captain Trent?”
“Enlisting other men, to follow with cannon and powder. How far to the Forks, sir? You have been there?”
“I, and also Mr. Gist, whom you see. The Forks are one hundred and forty miles, by slow trail. But the principal fort should be located there, at all hazards,” asserted Washington. “Spend no time in looking elsewhere. I am hurrying to the Governor with that advice.”
“The Indians are to be friendly?” Ensign Wardqueried. “Settlers are only one day behind me, to take up company land at the Monongahela.”
“You have an interpreter with you?”
“Not yet, sir. We hope to meet up with the trader John Davidson, and employ him. But where, I do not know.”
Washington replied quickly:
“He is coming with Captain Vanbraam and my pack horses, but their whereabouts are uncertain. An interpreter you should have. This boy will serve you. He is the adopted son of the Mingo Half-King at Logstown, and I vouch for him. He speaks English, and understands a little French. He will be of great help to you. His name is the Hunter, and a hunter he is, and knows the country. He has been all the way to the French with me, and has borne himself bravely.”
Washington turned to Robert.
“I wish you to go with these men,” he said gravely. “You are willing?”
A lump had risen in the Hunter’s throat. He had travelled far, he had had a hard time, he was almost at the end of the trail in the comfortable country of Washington’s Americans where he was to learn to be white—! So he hesitated for just a moment. Then he said:
“I will go. I am American.”
“Bravo!” smiled Washington. “It is the part of an American to serve his country.”
The Hunter gulped.
“You will come, Washington?”
“If I am honored with an appointment to the wilderness again, I will come.”
“All right,” said the Hunter. “I go to help keep the French out.”
Washington and Gist rode on. Robert turned around, for the trail back to Dekanawida, and the Mingos and Delawares, and perhaps that Logstown which was nothing like the white towns described by Washington. Tanacharison would be surprised.
There were thirty men, and seventeen pack horses loaded with fort-building material and trading-house goods. The men did not look to be the equal of the French; they were not all soldiers—they seemed more to be traders and woodsmen, and were poor and ragged, and badly armed. The soldier captain, Ensign Ward, appeared to be not much older than Washington, but he was younger acting—he talked more and as they travelled he asked many questions of the Hunter, and often laughed.
They were a long time in getting the pack horses over the rough, narrow trail; across the Savage Mountains, and the Great or Alleghany Mountains, and the swollen, icy Youghiogheny or Four-Streams-in-One River, and through the Great Meadows, and across the Laurel Ridge to Gist’s Place, and then on west to the Monongahela River at the mouth of Redstone Creek, where Nemacolin’s Trail ended.
Here they had to stay and build the first storehouse for the Ohio Company. Captain William Trent (the same man who had failed to reach the French, before Washington was sent) arrived with more men, dressed in red, and with ten cannon in carts, and eighty barrels of powder and muskets.
It was the middle of February when the storehouse was finished. Trader John Fraser had come in and had been made a lieutenant; but he said thathe would not act unless he had permission to attend to his trading business too. Then Captain Trent left, to go back to Will’s Creek. A number of the men went, also, for they had grown tired. Lieutenant Fraser and Ensign Ward were told to march on and build the fort at the Forks, forty miles down the Monongahela. But Fraser stopped at his trading house, and after that they saw little of him; and when Ensign Ward reached the Forks he had only about forty men, and no great guns or powder.
While they were looking about for a good place for the fort, Tanacharison and White Thunder came up, to talk.
“I thought you were with Washington,” Half-King said to the Hunter.
“I went with Washington nearly to the Long Knife settlements; then he ordered me back to talk for this man who is to build the fort,” answered Robert.
“Who is this young man?”
“His name is Ward. He is the captain here.”
“Wah!” grumbled Tanacharison. “I found Washington wise, but now Assaragoa sends us another boy without hair on his face. Where are the great guns?”
“They will come,” said the Hunter.
“It is no use to build a fort without great guns,” declared Half-King. “And spring is near. As soon as the waters are open the French will be here in numbers like the wild geese. I will talk with this boy.”
Tanacharison talked with Ensign Ward, and liked him. Others from Logstown, and men from Shanopin’s-town and from Shingis’s town and fromAllaquippa’s town spent a great deal of time watching the fort grow; but it grew slowly.
John Davidson came from Will’s Creek. He said that Washington was raising another company of soldiers, and would march as soon as they were ready.
The waters had opened. The floating ice in the Allegheny had almost cleared, and of the fort only a few log walls were up, to form a storehouse for the trading goods, and buildings for the soldiers, when close behind the ice there arrived the French.
They were four days distant, up river, when the first news of them was heard; and it was bad news, for the French were many, in many boats with cannon.
Ensign Ward sent a runner to tell Captain Trent at Will’s Creek; and he sent the Hunter to bring Tanacharison and Scarouady for council.
“If you mean to fight off the French,” said Tanacharison, “you should at once build a high fence, with a ditch, and stay behind it, where you can move about. Else you will be shut up in these little houses and the French will knock them to pieces over your heads with their great guns. Where is Fraser? He has more experience than you.”
“I will get him,” answered Ward. So he went up to John Fraser’s trading place, eight or ten miles south; and Lieutenant Fraser said he could not leave his business—he knew that the French were near, and he did not see that anything could be done.
“Then I will build a stockade and wait; for I think it a shame to draw off before the French, as the rest of you have done,” Ward answered angrily. “The Indians will think us cowards.”
The men worked very hard, building a stockade of sharpened pickets, with a ditch inside it, in a good place. This last morning which was the morning of April 17th, White Thunder’s pretty daughter Bright Lightning borrowed Robert’s horse to ride up to Shanopin’s-town. Nobody could refuse Bright Lightning anything.
“Maybe I will see the French,” she said. “These English see nothing. They have no scouts out. I wish I were a warrior.”
“Well, you can marry a Delaware and perhaps some day you will be a woman sachem like old Allaquippa, and smoke a pipe,” Robert teased.
“Wah!” exclaimed Bright Lightning. “She is ugly and fat. When I tell you the French are coming, then I’ll know whether you and your Long Knife Americans are warriors, yourselves.”
Bright Lightning rode off astride.She had been gone only two hours when back she galloped——
BRIGHT LIGHTNING RODE OFF ASTRIDE
BRIGHT LIGHTNING RODE OFF ASTRIDE
BRIGHT LIGHTNING RODE OFF ASTRIDE
“I have seen the French! The army of Onontio is near, in boats.”
“Where?”
“Above Shanopin’s-town. The boats are like leaves upon a stream in Falling Leaf month.”
“If she speaks the truth, we will see,” said Tanacharison. “If she does not speak the truth, she shall be punished, but there is no harm in finishing the stockade.”
The Ward men worked harder than ever. They had just put up the gate that closed the last opening when, at noon, the French fleet did sweep around the bend at Shanopin’s-town, two miles up the Allegheny.
It was the army from Fort Le Boeuf! Wah!How many? Almost four hundred boats, small and large, blue with soldiers and bristling with muskets!
The French made a fine landing at the Forks and marched right in, to halt beyond musket shot while an officer came on with a white flag and two Indians. He wished to talk. Taking Tanacharison and the Hunter, Ensign Ward went out from the stockade and met him.
The Indians were French Iroquois, named Owl and Two Drums. Owl spoke English, so that Robert had only to listen and know that his words were the true words.
“I am Captain de Mercier,” said the officer, through Owl. “My commander the Chevalier de Contrecoeur directs that you retire at once with your men from this land belonging to the King of France; and by this belt of wampum he bids the Half-King, whom I see with you, do the same.”
“And what if we decline?” answered Ensign Ward, standing bravely.
“You will suffer the consequences of your rashness,” replied the French officer. “We will take possession just the same.”
Looking past him they could see great guns being unloaded from the large boats and dragged in shore.
“I must have a little time to think,” said Ensign Ward.
The French officer looked at his watch, and he said:
“It is near two o’clock. By three o’clock you must appear at my commander’s camp with your reply in writing, or we shall proceed against your works.”
Tanacharison broke into a rage and threw the wampum belt upon the ground.
“You tell your captain chief I do not know him. There is his belt. He has no rights here, to order me or the English what to do. This is not French land. It is Iroquois land, and my land. I invited the English to come upon it; I ordered a fort to be built and I laid the first log.”
But the officer only turned upon his heel and strode away, together with Owl and Two Drums.
Ensign Ward, very red and walking stiffly, went back to the little stockade, where the men had been watching and waiting. It was plain to be seen that he did not know what reply to make. He showed good sense, though, for he held council with Tanacharison and Scarouady and White Thunder, who were older than he. The Hunter and John Davidson translated such words as might not be understood.
“I wish to know what you would do if you were in my place,” he said, to Tanacharison. “I am alone here, with only forty men, of whom but thirty-three are armed. I have no cannon, and but little provisions for a long fight.”
“The French number a thousand, with great guns,” Half-King answered. “Where is your captain, with guns and men, that he does not come to help you?”
“I sent word to him four days ago,” said Ensign Ward. “I know nothing about him.”
“It is a strange thing in Assaragoa to put a handful of men under somebody of no experience in the midst of the woods and leave them to the French,” declared White Thunder. “Where is Washington? He does not fear the French, but that man Trent has gone home a second time without even seeing the French.”
“Do the Mingos tell me to fight the French, and that they will help?” Ensign Ward asked quickly.
“What does Scarouady say?” said Tanacharison.
“Wah!” replied Scarouady—he of the tattooed chest and cheeks. “Were we to fight the French we should have fought them on the river where they could not use their great guns. Then they would have turned back. To fight them now requires a council, and plans; and they have Iroquois brothers with them. That is how it seems to me.”
“Listen,” bade Half-King; and he spoke wisely: “The French may not wish to fight. If they fire and kill men, that means war with the King across the water. This is not Onontio’s land; it is land given to the English for a fort, and the English are here first. To drive them off is war, but to talk is not war. Now I think that Ward should say to the French: ‘I am only a small chief, put here to build a trading house upon land given by the Iroquois, and I know nothing of any wrong in the matter. So I cannot make answer without orders from my captain chief. But my captain chief will be here within a day or two, and he will talk with the French captain.’
“That is how Washington and I were treated at Venango and Fort Buffalo,” continued Half-King. “The French will see that you are speaking the truth; and while they are waiting Washington will be coming, and he will attack them from behind while you fight them from in front.”
“That’s good sense,” approved John Davidson.
This answer Ensign Ward decided to make, when the hour was up. Then Tanacharison took the Hunter aside.
“Quick!” he said. “We cannot depend on thatman Trent. Do you set out on foot so you will not be seen; find Washington and give him this belt, and say to him: ‘Your brother cries to you from the depths of his heart and bids you come at once to his assistance or we all are lost and may never meet again.’ Tell that to Washington and to no other. He shall be our hope.”
Robert the Hunter turned around and ran through the stockade, to get out by the back. Men would stop him with questions but he paid no heed, for the words of Tanacharison were repeating in his mind. He dived past the gate sentinel, and was outside, when somebody called. It was Bright Lightning running after.
“Wait! You are running away, Hunter?”
“Think so if you like,” he answered. “Goodby.”
“No,” panted Bright Lightning. “You do not run away. You go to bring Washington. I guessed. Take this, for the long trail.” And she handed him a piece of dried venison and a little bag of parched corn. “Hurry!”
And he hurried on, feeling grateful to Bright Lightning. She was a good girl. He would not tease her any more.
At first chance he plunged into the forest, upon shortest trail to Washington. Whether the French would let Ward stay, he did not know. Perhaps the Long Knives and the Mingos would try to fight the French—he could see that Tanacharison was much worried. This he did know: he had more than one hundred miles to travel, and the piece of meat and the parched corn would help him a great deal.
When on the evening of the fourth day fromthe Forks the Hunter trotted afoot down to the mouth of Will’s Creek he was very tired and the belt about his stomach was very small; for he had slept little and his meat and parched corn were gone. He had stopped only to rest, and not to hunt. But that which he now saw gladdened his eyes.
Around the Ohio Company’s log storehouse in the clearing along the Potomac where Will’s Creek entered there were a large number of tents, and many men were moving about. It looked as though he had met Washington.
He panted in among the tents. The soldiers and other men, most of them poorly dressed and doing nothing, stared at him or laughed as if they thought him only an Indian boy coming to beg. And then he espied somebody he knew.
It was the fat Captain Vanbraam, of Dutch Land, who had been left behind on the trail from Venango last winter.
“Ho,” cried Robert. “Vanbraam! See me.”
“What iss?” answered Jacob Vanbraam. “Oh! Eh? Yah! It is our Injun boy again. Where you come from now? You want me?”
“I want Washington. Where is Washington?”
“Yes; Washington, of coorse. He is not to be boddered. Eh? What? You tired? Hungry? Somebody chase you?”
“I bring words,” said Robert. “From Tanacharison. Where is Washington?”
“Oho!” quoth Jacob Vanbraam. “Den come along. I take you.”
Captain Vanbraam strutted off with Robert athis heels; and saluting at the open flaps of a tent guarded by a soldier, said:
“Here is one to see you, colonel.”
George Washington replied:
“Let him come in.”
Washington, in red uniform, was sitting upon a stool at a little table, writing in the dusk; when he saw the Hunter he stood up—his eye was quick, he knew that something was the matter, for with tired face suddenly made hard and sharp he uttered:
“The Hunter! You’ve been travelling—you bring news?”
“Tanacharison says to Washington: ‘Your brother cries from his heart to you to come quick and help us or all is lost and he may never see you again.’”
“What?” exclaimed Washington. “How’s that? Where are you from?”
“The Forks. The French come, one thousand. Tanacharison send me for Washington.”
“What did the French do? Where is Ensign Ward, who builds the fort?”
“Ward there. French there. Mebbe fight, mebbe not. French tell Ward to get out. Tanacharison say wait.”
“Hah!” exclaimed Washington. “You hear, Vanbraam?”
“Yes; and two days ago we hear dat Captain Trent and all was captured by the French. Den when we arrive we find Trent at dis Will’s Creek, and he knows nodding about it. He says he left Ward safe, and has no news. So what to belief? Mebbe all a scare.”
“I trust this boy, sir,” replied Washington.
“The word is true word,” said Robert. “I see the French. They are there, Washington.”
“When was it?” asked Jacob Vanbraam.
“Four days. I came straight.”
“Impossible. It is one hoonderd and fifty miles, by bad trail in bad wedder,” scoffed Jacob Vanbraam.
“I make own trail,” said Robert.
“You look it. You are tired, hungry too,” said Washington. “I thank the Hunter. Was the fort finished? Is it fallen?”
“Not finished. French say to go away in one hour. Tanacharison tell Ward to say he must wait for his chief.”
“Summon the officers for a council in my tent immediately, captain,” ordered Washington, of Vanbraam. “If the fort has surrendered we may expect Ward himself soon. The boy has evidently beaten any other messenger.”
Then he called in a black servant, and the Hunter ate, and answered more questions, and lay down to sleep in George Washington’s tent.