The Scouts of the ValleyAltsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
General
The Scouts of the Valley
Altsheler, Joseph A. (Joseph Alexander)
Chemung River Valley (N.Y. and Pa.) -- Fiction; Historical fiction; Wyoming Valley (Pa.) -- Fiction
The man's face blanched, and he cast a hasty look toward a little wood,
where stood a cabin from which smoke was rising. He could not doubt on a
near view that these were white like himself, and the words rang true.
“My house is strong,” he said, “and I can beat them off. Maybe you will
help me.”
“We'd help you willingly enough,” said Henry, “if this were any ordinary
raiding band, but 'Indian' Butler, Brant, and Queen Esther are coming at
the head of twelve or fifteen hundred men. How could we hold a house, no
matter how thick its walls, against such an army as that? Don't hesitate
a moment! Get up what you can and gallop.”
The man, a Connecticut settler-Jennings was his name-left his plow in
the furrow, galloped on his horse to his house, mounted his wife and
children on other horses, and, taking only food and clothing, fled to
Stroudsburg, where there was a strong fort. At a later day he gave Henry
heartfelt thanks for his warning, as six hours afterward the vanguard
of the horde burned his home and raged because its owner and his family
were gone with their scalps on their own heads.
The five were now well into the Wyoming Valley, where the Lenni-Lenape,
until they were pushed westward by other tribes, had had their village
Wy-wa-mieh, which means in their language Wyoming. It was a beautiful
valley running twenty miles or more along the Susquehanna, and about
three miles broad. On either side rose mountain walls a thousand feet in
height, and further away were peaks with mists and vapors around their
crests. The valley itself blazed in the summer sunshine, and the river
sparkled, now in gold, now in silver, as the light changed and fell.
More cultivated fields, more houses, generally of stout logs, appeared,
and to all that they saw the five bore the fiery beacon. Simon Jennings
was not the only man who lived to thank them for the warning. Others
were incredulous, and soon paid the terrible price of unbelief.
The five hastened on, and as they went they looked about them with
wondering eyes-there were so many houses, so many cultivated fields, and
so many signs of a numerous population. They had emerged almost for the
first time from the wilderness, excepting their memorable visit to New
Orleans, although this was a very different region. Long Jim spoke of
it.
“I think I like it better here than at New Or-leeyuns,” he said. “We
found some nice Frenchmen an' Spaniards down thar, but the ground feels
firmer under my feet here.”
“The ground feels firmer,” said Paul, who had some of the prescience of
the seer, “but the skies are no brighter. They look red to me sometimes,
Jim.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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