escribed by our own admirable poet, and which we have placed at the
head of this chapter, was here realized; the earth fattened by the
decayed vegetation of centuries, and black with loam, the stream that
filled the banks nearly to overflowing, and the "fresh and boundless
wood," being all as visible to the eye as the pen of Bryant has
elsewhere vividly presented them to the imagination. In short, the
entire scene was one of a rich and benevolent nature, before it had
been subjected to the uses and desires of man; luxuriant, wild, full
of promise, and not without the charm of the picturesque, even in its
rudest state. It will be remembered that this was in the year 175-, or
long before even speculation had brought any portion of western New York
within the bounds of civilization. At that distant day there were two
great channels of military communication between the inhabited portion
of the colony of New York and the frontiers which lay adjacent to the
Canadas,--that by Lakes Champlain and George, and that by means of the
Mohawk, Wood Creek, the Oneida, and the rivers we have been describing.
Along both these lines of communication military posts had been
established, though there existed a blank space of a hundred miles
between the last fort at the head of the Mohawk and the outlet of the
Oswego, which embraced most of the distance that Cap and Mabel had
journeyed under the protection of Arrowhead.

"I sometimes wish for peace again," said the Pathfinder, "when one can
range the forest without searching for any other enemy than the beasts
and fishes. Ah's me! many is the day that the Sarpent, there, and I have
passed happily among the streams, living on venison, salmon, and trout
without thought of a Mingo or a scalp! I sometimes wish that them
blessed days might come back, for it is not my real gift to slay my own
kind. I'm sartain the Sergeant's daughter don't think me a wretch that
takes pleasure in preying on human natur'?"

As this remark, a sort of half interrogatory, was made, Pathfinder
looked behind him; and, though the most partial friend could scarcely
term his sunburnt and hard features handsome, even Mabel thought his
smile attractive, by its simple ingenuousness and the uprightness that
beamed in every lineament of his honest countenance.

"I do not think my father would have sent one like those you mention
to see his daughter through the wilderness," the young woman answered,
returning the smile as fra