son,
to the neighbourhood of Crown Point, where the French had a strong place
in the woods, upon Lake Champlain. But to have done this directly were
too perilous; and it was accordingly gone upon by such a labyrinth of
rivers, lakes, and portages as makes my head giddy to remember. These
paths were in ordinary times entirely desert; but the country was now
up, the tribes on the war-path, the woods full of Indian scouts. Again
and again we came upon these parties when we least expected them; and
one day, in particular, I shall never forget how, as dawn was coming in,
we were suddenly surrounded by five or six of these painted devils,
uttering a very dreary sort of cry, and brandishing their hatchets. It
passed off harmlessly, indeed, as did the rest of our encounters; for
Chew was well known and highly valued among the different tribes.
Indeed, he was a very gallant, respectable young man; but even with the
advantage of his companionship, you must not think these meetings were
without sensible peril. To prove friendship on our part, it was needful
to draw upon our stock of rum--indeed, under whatever disguise, that is
the true business of the Indian trader, to keep a travelling
public-house in the forest; and when once the braves had got their
bottle of _scaura_ (as they call this beastly liquor), it behoved us to
set forth and paddle for our scalps. Once they were a little drunk,
good-bye to any sense or decency; they had but the one thought, to get
more _scaura_. They might easily take it in their heads to give us
chase, and had we been overtaken, I had never written these memoirs.

We were come to the most critical portion of our course, where we might
equally expect to fall into the hands of French or English, when a
terrible calamity befell us. Chew was taken suddenly sick with symptoms
like those of poison, and in the course of a few hours expired in the
bottom of the canoe. We thus lost at once our guide, our interpreter,
our boatman, and our passport, for he was all these in one; and found
ourselves reduced, at a blow, to the most desperate and irremediable
distress. Chew, who took a great pride in his knowledge, had indeed
often lectured us on the geography; and Ballantrae, I believe, would
listen. But for my part I have always found such information highly
tedious; and beyond the fact that we were now in the country of the
Adirondack Indians, and not so distant from our destination, could we
but have found the