Satanstoe; Or, the Littlepage Manuscripts. A Tale of the ColonyCooper, James Fenimore
General
Satanstoe; Or, the Littlepage Manuscripts. A Tale of the Colony
Cooper, James Fenimore
Antirent War, N.Y., 1839-1846 -- Fiction
“Yes, sah--he say he name be Muss”--probably Jaap's defective manner of
repeating some Indian sound; “and a proper muss he get in, Masser Corny,
when he try to cotch Jaap by he wool!”
Here I was obliged to clap my hand suddenly on the black's mouth, for the
fellow was so delighted with the recollection of the manner in which he
had got the better of his red adversary, that he broke out into one of the
uncontrollable fits of noisy laughter, that are so common to his race. I
repeated the order, somewhat sternly, for Jaap to cut the cords, and then
to follow us to the canoe, in which the Onondago and my two friends had
already taken their places. My own foot was raised to enter the canoe, when
I heard heavy stripes inflicted on the back of some one. Rushing back to
the spot where I had left Jaap and his captive, Muss, I found the former
inflicting a severe punishment, on the naked back of the other, with the
end of the cord that still bound his arms. Muss, as Jaap called him,
neither flinched nor cried. The pine stands not more erect or unyielding,
in a summer's noontide, than he bore up under the pain. Indignantly I
thrust the negro away, cut the fellow's bonds with my own hands, and drove
my slave before me to the canoe.
[Footnote 36: Holmes's Annals say, that Lord John Murray commanded the 42d,
on this occasion. I presume, as Mr. Littlepage was there, and was posted
so near the corps in question, he cannot well be mistaken. Mrs. Grant, of
Laggan, who was at Albany at the time, and whose father was in the
battle, agrees with Mr. Littlepage, in saying that Gordon Graham led the
42d.--EDITOR.]
CHAPTER XXIV.
“Pale set the sun--the shades of evening fell,
The mournful night-wind sung their funeral knell;
And the same day beheld their warriors dead,
Their sovereign captive and their glory fled!”
MRS. HEMANS.
I shall never forget the journey of that fearful night. Susquesus paddled
the canoe, unaided by us, who were too much fatigued with the toil of the
day, to labour much, as soon as we found ourselves in a place of safety.
Even Jaap lay down and slept for several hours, the sleep of the weary. I
do not think any of us, however, actually slept for the first hour or two,
the scenes through which we had just passed, and that, indeed, through
which we were then passing, acting as preventives to such an indulgence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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