Littlepage Manuscripts: Satanstoe, The Chainbearer & The Redskins (Complete Edition)
than half that number pulled triggers on us, in the miserable affair. There is always much of exaggeration in both the boasting and the apologies of war.
Our own loss, on this sad occasion, was reported at 548 slain, and 1356 wounded. This was probably within the truth; though the missing were said to be surprisingly few, some thirty or forty, in all; the men having no place to repair to but the boats. Of the Highlanders, it was said that nearly half the common men, and twenty-five, or nearly all the officers, were either killed or wounded! One account, indeed, said that every officer of that corps, who was on the ground, suffered. The 55th, also, was dreadfully cut up. Ten of its officers were slain outright, and many were wounded. As for the ——th, it fared a little better, not heading a column; but its loss was fearful. Bulstrode was seriously wounded, early in the attack, though his hurt was never supposed to be dangerous. Billings was left dead on the field, and Harris got a scratch that served him to talk of in after life.
The confusion was tremendous after such a conflict and such a defeat. The troops re-embarked without much regard to corps or regularity of movement; and the boats moved away as fast as they received their melancholy cargoes. An immense amount of property was lost; though I believe all the customary military trophies were preserved. As the provincials had been the least engaged, and had suffered much the least, in proportion to numbers, a large body of them was kept as a rear-guard, while the regular corps removed their wounded and matériel.
As for us three or four, including Jaap, who stuck by his prisoner, we scarcely knew what to do with ourselves. Everybody who felt any interest in us, was either killed or wounded. Bulstrode we could not see; nor could we even find the regiment. Should we succeed in the attempt at the last, very few now remained in it who would have taken much, or indeed any concern in us. Under the circumstances, therefore, we held a consultation on the lake-shore, uncertain whether to ask admission into one of the departing boats, or to remain until morning, that our retreat might have a more manly aspect.
“I’ll tell you what it is, Corny,” said Guert Ten Eyck, in a somewhat positive manner, “the less we say about this campaign, and of our share in it, the petter. We are not soldiers, in the regular way, and if we keep quiet, nobody will know what a t’rashing we t’ree, in particular, haf receivet. My advice is, t’at we get out of this army as we got into it—t’at is, py a one-sided movement, and for ever after-holt our tongues about our having had anyt’ing to do with it. I never knew a worsted man any the more respected for his mishap; and I will own, that I set down flogging as a very material part of a fight.”
“I am quite sure, Guert, I am as little disposed to brag of my share in this affair, as you or any one can possibly be; but it is much easier to talk about getting away from this confused crowd than really to do the thing. I doubt if any of these boats will take us in; for an Englishman, flogged, is not apt to be very good-natured; and all our friends seem to be killed or wounded.”
“You want go?” asked a low Indian voice at my elbow. “Got ‘nough, eh?”
Turning, I saw Susquesus standing within two feet of me. Our consultation was necessarily in the midst of a moving throng; and the Onondago must have approached us, unnoticed, at the commencement of our conference. There he was, however, though whence he came or how he got there, I could not imagine, at the time, and have never been able to learn since.
“Can you help us to get away, Susquesus?” was my answer. “Do you know of any means of crossing the lake?”
“Got canoe. That good. Canoe go, though Yengeese run.”
“That in which we came off to the army, do you mean?”
The Indian nodded his head, and made a sign for us to follow. Little persuasion was necessary, and we proceeded at his heels, in a body, in the direction he led. I will confess, that when I saw our guide proceeding eastward, along the lake-shore, I had some misgivings on the subject of his good faith. That was the direction which took us towards, instead of from the enemy; and there was something so mysterious in the conduct of this man, that it gave me uneasiness. Here he was, in the midst of the English army in the height of its confusion, though he had declined joining it previously to the battle. Nothing was easier than to enter the throng, in its present confused state, and move about undetected for hours, if one had the nerve necessary for the service; and, in that property, I felt certain the Onondago was not deficient. There was a coolness in the manner of the man, a quiet observation, both blended with the seeming apathy of a red-skin, that gave every assurance of his fitness for the duty.
Nevertheless, there was no remedy but to follow, or to break with our guide on the spot. We did not like to do the last, although we conferred together on the subject, but followed, keeping our hands on the locks of our rifles, in readiness for a brush, should we be led into danger. Susquesus had no such treacherous intentions, however, while he had disposed of his canoe in a place that denoted his judgment. We had to walk quite a mile ere we reached the little bush-fringed creek in which he had concealed it. I have always thought we ran a grave risk, in advancing so far in that direction, since the enemy’s Indians would certainly be hanging around the skirts of our army, in quest of scalps; but I afterwards learned the secret of the Onondago’s confidence, who first spoke on the subject after we had left the shore, and then only in an answer to a remark of Guert’s.
“No danger,” he said; “red-man gettin’ Yengeese scalps, on the war-path. Too much kill, now, to want more.”
As both governments pursued the culpable policy of paying for human scalps, this suggestion probably contained the whole truth.
Previously to quitting the creek, however, there was a difficulty to dispose of. Jaap had brought his Huron prisoner with him; and the Onondago declared that the canoe could not carry six. This we knew from experience, indeed, though five went in it very comfortably.
“No room,” said Susquesus, “for red-man. Five good—six bad.”
“What shall we do with the fellow, Corny?” asked Guert, with a little interest. “Jaap says he is a proper devil, by daylight, and that he had a world of trouble in taking him, and in bringing him in. For five minutes, it was heads or tails which was to give in; and the nigger only got the best of it, by his own account of the battle, because the red-skin had the unaccountable folly to try to beat in Jaap’s brains. He might as well have battered the Rock of Gibraltar, you know, as to attempt to break a nigger’s skull, and so your fellow got the best of it. What shall we do with the rascal?”
“Take scalp,” said the Onondago, sententiously; “got good scalp—war-lock ready—paint, war-paint—capital scalp.”
“Ay, that may do better for you, Master Succetush”—so Guert always called our guide, “than it will do for us Christians. I am afraid we shall have to let the ravenous devil go, after disarming him.”
“Disarmed he is already; but he cannot be long without a musket, on this battle-ground. I am of your opinion, Guert; so, Jaap, release your prisoner at once, that we may return to Ravensnest, as fast as possible.”
“Dat berry hard, Masser Corny, sah!” exclaimed Jaap, who did not half like the orders he received.
“No words about it, sir, but cut his fastenings”—Jaap had tied the Indian’s arms behind him, with a rope, as an easy mode of leading him along. “Do you know the man’s name?”
“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