[Personal Memoirs Of A Residence Of Thirty Years With The Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers by Henry Rowe Schoolcraft]@TWC D-Link bookPersonal Memoirs Of A Residence Of Thirty Years With The Indian Tribes On The American Frontiers CHAPTER IX 12/13
He is of the medium stature, with blue eyes, fair complexion, hair which still bears traces of its original light brown, and possesses manners and conversation so entirely easy and polite as to impress us all very favorably. Colonel Brady selected some large open fields, not susceptible of a surprise, for his encampment.
To this spot, as boat after boat came up, in fine style, with its complement of men from the steamer, the several companies marched down, and before nightfall, the entire command was encamped in a square, with their tents handsomely pitched, and the whole covered by lines of sentinels, and under the exact government of troops in the field.
The roll of the drum which had attracted but little attention on the steamer, assumed a deeper tone, as it was re-echoed from the adjoining woods, and now distinctly announced, from time to time, the placing of sentinels, the hour for supper, and other offices of a clock, in civil life.
The French population evinced, by their countenances and gestures, as they clustered round, a manifest satisfaction at the movement; the groups of Indians had gazed in a sort of silent wonder at the pageant; they seemed, by a certain air of secrecy and suspicion, to think it boded some evil to their long supremacy in the land.
Night imperceptibly threw her dark mantle over the scene; the gazers, group by group, went to their lodges, and finally the sharp roll of the tattoo bid every one within the camp to his tent. Captain Alexander R.Thompson, who had claimed the commandant as his guest, invited me also to spend the night in his tent.
<<Back Index Next>> D-Link book Top TWC mobile books
|