nswer the purpose of
a parade-ground, as it possessed the advantages of having its rear
protected by the water, and one of its flanks by the works. Men drilling
on it could be attacked, consequently, on two sides only; and as the
cleared space beyond it, in the direction of the west and south, was
large, any assailants would be compelled to quit the cover of the woods
before they could make an approach sufficiently near to render them
dangerous.

Although the regular arms of the regiment were muskets, some fifty
rifles were produced on the present occasion. Every officer had one as a
part of his private provision for amusement; many belonged to the scouts
and friendly Indians, of whom more or less were always hanging about the
fort; and there was a public provision of them for the use of those who
followed the game with the express object of obtaining supplies. Among
those who carried the weapon were some five or six, who had reputation
for knowing how to use it particularly well--so well, indeed, as to
have given them a celebrity on the frontier; twice that number who were
believed to be much better than common; and many who would have been
thought expert in almost any situation but the precise one in which they
now happened to be placed.

The distance was a hundred yards, and the weapon was to be used without
a rest; the target, a board, with the customary circular lines in white
paint, having the bull's-eye in the centre. The first trials in skill
commenced with challenges among the more ignoble of the competitors to
display their steadiness and dexterity in idle competition. None but
the common men engaged in this strife, which had little to interest the
spectators, among whom no officer had yet appeared.

Most of the soldiers were Scotch, the regiment having been raised at
Stirling and its vicinity not many years before, though, as in the case
of Sergeant Dunham, many Americans had joined it since its arrival in
the colonies. As a matter of course, the provincials were generally the
most expert marksmen; and after a desultory trial of half an hour it was
necessarily conceded that a youth who had been born in the colony of New
York, and who coming of Dutch extraction, was the most expert of all who
had yet tried their skill. It was just as this opinion prevailed that
the oldest captain, accompanied by most of the gentlemen and ladies
of the fort, appeared on the parade. A train of some twenty females of
humbler c