er to post themselves on the side
along which the white men were coasting, when they were fortunately
descried. Mr. Stuart and his companions were immediately on the alert.
As they drew near to the place where the savages had crossed, they
observed them posted among steep and overhanging rocks, close along
which, the canoes would have to pass. Finding that the enemy had the
advantage of the ground, the whites stopped short when within five
hundred yards of them, and discharged and reloaded their pieces. They
then made a fire, and dressed the wounds of Mr. Reed, who had received
five severe gashes in the head. This being done, they lashed the canoes
together, fastened them to a rock at a small distance from the shore,
and there awaited the menaced attack.

They had not been long posted in this manner, when they saw a canoe
approaching. It contained the war-chief of the tribe, and three of his
principal warriors. He drew near, and made a long harangue, in which
he informed them that they had killed one and wounded another of his
nation; that the relations of the slain cried out for vengeance, and
he had been compelled to lead them to fight. Still he wished to spare
unnecessary bloodshed; he proposed, therefore, that Mr. Reed, who, he
observed, was little better than a dead man, might be given up to be
sacrificed to the manes of the deceased warrior. This would appease
the fury of his friends; the hatchet would then be buried, and all
thenceforward would be friends. The answer was a stern refusal and a
defiance, and the war-chief saw that the canoes were well prepared for a
vigorous defense. He withdrew, therefore, and returning to his warriors
among the rocks held long deliberations. Blood for blood is a principle
in Indian equity and Indian honor; but though the inhabitants of
Wish-ram were men of war, they were likewise men of traffic, and it was
suggested that honor for once might give way to profit. A negotiation
was accordingly opened with the white men, and after some diplomacy, the
matter was compromised for a blanket to cover the dead, and some tobacco
to be smoked by the living. This being granted, the heroes of Wish-ram
crossed the river once more, returned to their villages to feast
upon the horses whose blood they had so vaingloriously drunk, and the
travellers pursued their voyage without further molestation.

The tin case, however, containing the important despatches for New
York, was irretrievably lost; th