American fiction -- 19th century; Historical fiction; Indians of North America -- Fiction
To this question Pigeonswing gave no answer. His own mind was so far
under Peter's control that he did not choose to tell more than might be
prudent. He was fully aware of the mysterious chief's principal design,
that of destroying the white race altogether, and of restoring the red
men to their ancient rights, but several reasons prevented his entering
into the plot heart and hand. In the first place, he was friendly to
the “Yankees,” from whom he, personally, had received many favors and
no wrongs; then, the tribe, or half-tribe, to which he belonged had
been employed, more or less, by the agents of the American government
as runners, and in other capacities, ever since the peace of '83; and,
lastly, he himself had been left much in different garrisons, where
he had not only acquired his English, but a habit of thinking of the
Americans as his friends. It might also be added that Pigeonswing,
though far less gifted by nature than the mysterious Peter, had formed
a truer estimate of the power of the “Yankees,” and did not believe they
were to be annihilated so easily. How it happened that this Indian had
come to a conclusion so much safer than that of Peter's, a man of twice
his capacity, is more than we can explain; though it was probably owing
to the accidental circumstances of his more intimate associations with
the whites.
The bee-hunter was by nature a man of observation, a faculty that his
habits had both increased and stimulated. Had it not been for the manner
in which he was submitting to the influence of Margery, he would long
before have seen that in the deportment of the Chippewa which would have
awakened his distrust; not that Margery in any way endeavored to blind
him to what was passing before his face, but that he was fast getting to
have eyes only for her. By this time she filled not only his waking, but
many of his sleeping thoughts; and when she was not actually before him,
charming him with her beauty, enlivening him with her artless gayety,
and inspiring him with her innocent humor, he fancied she was there,
imagination, perhaps, heightening all those advantages which we have
enumerated. When a man is thoroughly in love, he is quite apt to be
fit for very little else but to urge his suit. Such, in a certain
way, proved to be the case with le Bourdon, who allowed things to pass
unheeded directly before his eyes that previously to his acquaintance
with Margery would not only have been observed, but which would have
most probably led to some practical results. The conduct of Pigeonswing
was among the circumstances that were thus over-looked by our hero. In
point of fact, Peter was slowly but surely working on the mind of the
Chippewa, changing all his opinions radically, and teaching him to
regard every pale-face as an enemy. The task, in this instance, was not
easy; for Pigeonswing, in addition to his general propensities in favor
of the “Yankees,” the result of mere accident, had conceived a real
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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