The Hunters of the Hills by Joseph A. Altsheler (best books under 200 pages txt) 📗

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THE HUNTERS OF THE HILLS

A Story of the Great French and Indian War

by

JOSEPH A. ALTSHELER

Author of The Tree Of Appomattox, The Keepers Of The Trail, The
Forest Of Swords, etc.

Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc.
New York

1916

FOREWORD

"The Hunters of the Hills" is the first volume of a series dealing with the great struggle of France and England and their colonies for dominion in North America, culminating with the fall of Quebec. It is also concerned to a large extent with the Iroquois, the mighty league known in their own language as the Hodenosaunee, for the favor of which both French and English were high bidders. In his treatment of the theme the author has consulted many authorities, and he is not conscious of any historical error.

CHARACTERS IN THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR SERIES

   ROBERT LENNOX A lad of unknown origin
   TAYOGA A young Onondaga warrior
   DAVID WILLET A hunter
   RAYMOND LOUIS DE ST. LUC A brilliant French officer
   AGUSTE DE COURCELLES A French officer
   FRANÇOIS DE JUMONVILLE A French officer
   LOUIS DE GALISONNIÈRE A young French officer
   JEAN DE MÉZY A corrupt Frenchman
   ARMAND GLANDELET A young Frenchman
   PIERRE BOUCHER A bully and bravo
   PHILIBERT DROUILLARD A French priest
   THE MARQUIS DUQUESNE Governor-General of Canada
   MARQUIS DE VAUDREUIL Governor-General of Canada
   FRANÇOIS BIGOT Intendant of Canada
   MARQUIS DE MONTCALM French commander-in-chief
   DE LEVIS A French general
   BOURLAMAQUE A French general
   BOUGAINVILLE A French general
   ARMAND DUBOIS A follower of St. Luc
   M. DE CHATILLARD An old French Seigneur
   CHARLES LANGLADE A French partisan
   THE DOVE The Indian wife of Langlade
   TANDAKORA An Ojibway chief
   DAGANOWEDA A young Mohawk chief
   HENDRICK An old Mohawk chief
   BRADDOCK A British general
   ABERCROMBIE A British general
   WOLFE A British general
   COL. WILLIAM JOHNSON Anglo-American leader
   MOLLY BRANT Col. Wm. Johnson's Indian wife
   JOSEPH BRANT Young brother of Molly Brant,
                                   afterward the great Mohawk
                                   chief, Thayendanegea
   ROBERT DINWIDDIE Lieutenant-Governor of Virginia
   WILLIAM SHIRLEY Governor of Massachusetts
   BENJAMIN FRANKLIN Famous American patriot
   JAMES COLDEN A young Philadelphia captain
   WILLIAM WILTON A young Philadelphia lieutenant
   HUGH CARSON A young Philadelphia lieutenant
   JACOBUS HUYSMAN An Albany burgher
   CATERINA Jacobus Huysman's cook
   ALEXANDER MCLEAN An Albany schoolmaster
   BENJAMIN HARDY A New York merchant
   JOHNATHAN PILLSBURY Clerk to Benjamin Hardy
   ADRIAN VAN ZOON A New York merchant
   THE SLAVER A nameless rover
   ACHILLE GARAY A French spy
   ALFRED GROSVENOR A young English officer
   JAMES CABELL A young Virginian
   WALTER STUART A young Virginian
   BLACK RIFLE A famous "Indian fighter"
   ELIHU STRONG A Massachusetts colonel
   ALAN HERVEY A New York financier
   STUART WHYTE Captain of the British sloop, Hawk
   JOHN LATHAM Lieutenant of the British sloop, Hawk
   EDWARD CHARTERIS A young officer of the Royal Americans
   ZEBEDEE CRANE A young scout and forest runner
   ROBERT ROGERS Famous Captain of American Rangers

CONTENTS CHAPTER I. THE THREE FRIENDS II. ST. LUC III. THE TOMAHAWK IV. THE INTELLIGENT CANOE V. THE MOHAWK CHIEF VI. THE TWO FRENCHMEN VII. NEW FRANCE VIII. GUESTS OF THE ENEMY IX. AT THE INN X. THE MEETING XI. BIGOT'S BALL XII. THE HUNTER AND THE BRAVO XIII. THE BOWMEN XIV. ON CHAMPLAIN XV. THE VALE OF ONONDAGA XVI. THE GREAT TEST CHAPTER I THE THREE FRIENDS

A canoe containing two boys and a man was moving slowly on one of the little lakes in the great northern wilderness of what is now the State of New York. The water, a brilliant blue under skies of the same intense sapphire tint, rippled away gently on either side of the prow, or rose in heaps of glittering bubbles, as the paddles were lifted for a new stroke.

Vast masses of dense foliage in the tender green of early spring crowned the high banks of the lake on every side. The eye found no break anywhere. Only the pink or delicate red of a wild flower just bursting into bloom varied the solid expanse of emerald walls; and save for the canoe and a bird of prey, darting in a streak of silver for a fish, the surface of the water was lone and silent.

The three who used the paddles were individual and unlike, none of them bearing any resemblance to the other two. The man sat in the stern. He was of middle years, built very powerfully and with muscles and sinews developed to an amazing degree. His face, in childhood quite fair, had been burned almost as brown as that of an Indian by long exposure. He was clothed wholly in tanned deerskin adorned with many little colored beads. A hatchet and knife were in the broad belt at his waist, and a long rifle lay at his feet.

His face was fine and open and he would have been noticed anywhere. But the eyes of the curious would surely have rested first upon the two youths with him.

One was back of the canoe's center on the right side and the other was forward on the left. The weight of the three occupants was balanced so nicely that their delicate craft floated on a perfectly even keel. The lad near the prow was an Indian of a nobler type than is often seen in these later days, when he has been deprived of the native surroundings that fit him like the setting of a gem.

The Indian, although several years short of full manhood, was tall, with limbs slender as was usual in his kind; but his shoulders were broad and his chest wide and deep. His color was a light copper, the tint verging toward red, and his face was illumined wonderfully by black eyes that often flashed with a lofty look of courage and pride.

The young warrior, Tayoga, a coming chief of the clan of the Bear, of the nation Onondaga, of the League of the Hodenosaunee, known to white men as the Iroquois, was in all the wild splendor of full forest attire. His headdress, gustoweh, was the product of long and careful labor. It was a splint arch, curving over the head, and crossed by another arch from side to side, the whole inclosed by a cap of fine network, fastened with a silver band. From the crest, like the plume of a Roman knight, a cluster of pure white feathers hung, and on the side of it a white feather of uncommon size projected upward and backward, the end of the feather set in a little tube which revolved with the wind, the whole imparting a further air of distinction to his strong and haughty countenance.

The upper part of his body was clothed in the garment called by the Hodenosaunee gakaah, a long tunic of deerskin tanned beautifully, descending to the knees, belted at the waist, and decorated elaborately with the quills of the porcupine, stained