| OCR Text |
Show 400 TJU: LII,Y A)'(D 'I'H£ TOT£~. cf n of the fatal field into which the rashness of Le Caille had ~~ b; party left D'Erlnch with few objects of consolation. Seven o~ them we:o slain outrigh~, or mortally wounded i three others were slightly wounded, and bu~ tlnce remained unh.urt. The survivors were brought off in safety, greatly rejoicing IU. a rescue 80 totally undeserved. '1'hc party that nigh~ encamped m a close wood in a. spot 80 chosen as to be easily guarded. T.wo of the perso~s morW.lly wounded in the conflict died that m~ht i tl~o third, next day at noon. They were not abandoned till th~lr cares and sufiCrings were at an cud, and their comrades burled them, piling huge stones about their corscs. Repose ~as g•e~tly wanting to the party i but they were conscious that the lndmns were about them. D'Erlaoh knew too well tim customs of the Apabchian race to doubt that the runners had already sped, e~st and 'vest, bearing le bat<nt roz~gt-tho painted club of red, which summons the tribe to which it is carried to send its young yultures to the gathering about the prey. . . llo sped away accordingly, re-crossing the. httlc nver where the party of Lc Cnillc had encountered the lnduln spy,and pr~s.sing forward upon the route which he Lad bee~l ~for~ pursumg. Day and night he trrwelled with little intermiSSIOn,. m tho endeavor to put as great ~~ ~:;pace ns possible botween Ius bnnd and their enemic!l. llut the toil hnd become too severo for his people. They began to falter, and were finally compelled to halt for a rest of two or more days, in a snug and pleasant valley, such as they could easily defend. Here they suffered IIC\'ernl di.s~ters. O~c of his men, drying some gunpo,vder before the fire, tt explode , and he was so dreadfully burnt tha~ he survi\'ed but n. day, and expired in great agony. Another, who we~t out a~ter gnme, never returned. Ho probn.bly fell a victim to Ins own unprudeneo, or Al.l'IIONSt 0 1£Jli.ACH. 401 !!Unk under the arrows of some prowling savage. The camp was broken up in haste and apprehension, nnd the march resumed. Their force was now reducOO to thirteen men, nnd these were destined to still further rOOuction. The cold had become excessive. The feet of the l1'rcnchmen grew sore from constant exercise; and nt length, despairing of the long progress still before them before they could reach ll1e sea, Alphonse D'l!:rlach yielded to the growing desire of his people to ascend the motmtaius and seck n. nearer spot of refuge, or nt least of temporary repose. He began to give car more earnestly to the story of the great city of the mountains; or, he seemed to do so. At all evcnts,-such was tho suggcstion-'wo cnn shelter oursch·es for the winter in some close vnllcy of tho hills ; here we can build log dwellings, nod supply ourselves with game ns hunters.' 1'ho Frenchmen had acquired sufficient experience of Indian habits to resort to their modes of meeting the exigencies of tl10 season. They knew what were the roots which might be bruised, nmccrnted, and made into hrend ; nnd they had been fed on acorns more thnn once by the Floridian savages. They began the painful tl.'lcent, accordingly, which cnrriod them up the heights of Apalachia, that mighty chain of towers which divide the continent from north to Bouth. They hnd probably reached the region which now forms the upper country of Georgia and South Cnrolinn. It was in the toilsome ascent of these precipitous heights that they encountered one of those dangers which D'}~rlnch had striven 80 earnestly to elude. This was n. meeting with the Indians, in any force. A body of more thnn forty of them were met descending one of the gorges up which the l<~renchmen were pninfully making their way. The meeting was the signal for the strife. The war-whoop was given almost in the moment when the partica |
