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for Gershom, no one seemed to think him of sufficient importance to
throw away any interest or care on him.
"You can trust to Peter, friend bee-hunter," the missionary
observed, "for what he promises he will perform. I know him well,
and have put myself altogether in his hands. If he says that the
Pottawattamies are not to have his canoe, the Pottawattamies will
not get it. He is a man to be depended on."
"Is not this, then, Scalping Peter, who bears so terrible a name on
all this frontier?" demanded le Bourdon.
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"The same; but do not disturb yourself with names: they hurt no one,
and will soon be forgotten. A descendant of Abraham, and of Isaac,
and of Jacob, is not placed in the wilderness by the hand of divine
power for no purpose; since he is here, rely on it, it is for good."
"A descendant of Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob! Is not Peter, then,
a red-skin and an Injin?"
"Certainly; though no one knows his tribe but himself. I know it,
friend bee-hunter, and shortly shall proclaim it throughout the
length and breadth of the land. Yes, it has been given to me to make
this important discovery, though I sometimes think that Peter
himself is really as ignorant as all around him of the tribe to
which he properly belongs."
"Do you wish to keep it a secret from me, too? I own that, in my
eyes, the tribe of a red-skin goes a good way in making up my
opinions of the man. Is he a Winnebagoe?"
"No, my friend, the Winnebagoes have no claims on him at all."
"Nor a Pottawattamie, Ottawa, or Ojebway of any sort?"
"He is none of these. Peter cometh of a nobler tribe than any that
beareth such names."
"Perhaps he is an Injin of the Six Nations? They tell me that many
such have found their way hither since the war of the revolution."
"All that may be true, but Peter cometh not of Pottawattamie,
Ottawa, nor Ojebway."
"He can hardly be of the Sacs or the Foxes; he has not the
appearance of an Injin from a region so far west"
"Neither, neither, neither," answered Parson Amen, now so full of
his secret as fairly to let it overflow. "Peter is a son of Israel;
one of the lost children of the land of Judea, in common with many
of his red brethren-mind, I do not say ALL, but with MANY of his red
brethren--though he may not know exactly of what tribe himself. This
last point has exercised me greatly, and days and nights have I
pondered over the facts. Turn to Genesis XLIX and 14th, and there
will you find all the authorities recorded. 'Zebulon shall dwell at
the haven of the sea.' That refers to some other red brother, nearer
to the coast, most clearly. 'Issachar is a strong ass, crouching
down between two burdens'; 'and bowed his shoulder to bear, and
became a servant unto tribute.' That refers, most manifestly, to the
black man of the Southern States, and cannot mean Peter. 'Dan shall
be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path.' There is the red man
for you, drawn with the pencil of truth! 'Gad, a troop shall
overcome him.' Here, corporal, come this way and tell our new friend
how Mad Anthony with his troopers finally routed the red-skins. You
were there, and know all about it. No language can be plainer: until
the 'long-knives and leather-stockings' came into the woods, the red
man had his way. Against THEM he COULD not prevail."
"Yes," returned Corporal Flint, who delighted in talking of the
wars, "it was very much as Parson Amen says. The savages, by their
nimbleness and artifices, would first ambush us, and then break away
from our charges, until the gin'ral bethought him of bringing
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cavalry into the wilderness. Nobody ever thought of such a plan,
until old Anthony invented it. As soon as we got the fire of the
savages, at the Mawmee, we charged with the baggonet, and put 'em
up; and no sooner was they up, than away went the horse into them,
flourishing the 'long knife' and pressing the heel of the 'leather-
stocking' into the flanks of their beasts. Mr. Amen has found a
varse in Scriptur's that does come near to the p'int, and almost
foretells our victory, and that, too, as plain as it stood in
dispatches, arterward, from headquarters."
"'Gad, a TROOP shall overcome him,'" put in the missionary,
triumphantly.
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