Assuming the reader to be now as fully familiar with the scene as ourselves, let him next, in imagination, people it, as on the occasion we have chosen for his introduction. It was a warm, sunny day, in the early part of July. The town itself was as quiet as if the glaive of war reposed in its sheath, and the inhabitants pursued their wonted avocations with the air of men who had nothing in common with the active interest which evidently dominated the more military portions of the scene. It was clear that among these latter some cause for excitement existed, for, independently of the unceasing bustle within the dockyard--a bustle which however had but one undivided object, the completion and equipment of the large vessel then on the stocks--the immediate neighborhood of the fort presented evidence of some more than ordinary interest. The encampment of the Indians on the verge of the forest, had given forth the great body of their warriors, and these clad in their gayest apparel, covered with feathers and leggings of bright colors, decorated with small tinkling bells that fell not inharmoniously on the ear, as they kept tune to the measured walk of their proud wearers, were principally assembled around and in front of the large building we have described as being without, yet adjacent to, the fort. These warriors might have been about a thousand in number, and amused themselves variously--(the younger at least)--with leaping--wrestling--ball-playing--and the foot race--in all which exercises they are unrivalled. The elders bore no part in these amusements, but stood, or sat cross-legged on the edge of the bank, smoking their pipes, and expressing their approbation of the prowess or dexterity of the victors in the games, by guttural, yet rapidly uttered exclamations. Mingled with these were some six or seven individuals, whose glittering costume of scarlet announced them for officers of the garrison, and elsewhere disposed, some along the banks and crowding the battery in front of the fort, or immediately round the building, yet quite apart from their officers, were a numerous body of the inferior soldiery.