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Captain Cook having now stood to the southward for a considerable distance without finding a harbour, tacked and stood to the northward, in hope of being more successful in that direction. The ship was off a high bluff headland with yellowish cliffs, which was accordingly called Cape Turnagain. Soon afterwards two chiefs and their three attendants paddled off, and willingly came on board.
On the fourth day the canoes that had paddled and sailed to every other island of the archipelago began to return. Some brought fifty packets, some less. Dealers had tossed their prices sky-ward when asked to sell their entire stocks. Now the game began again with the fierceness of the typhoon after the center has passed.
In a few minutes they were on board and out upon the lake, with Eben lying upon the bottom of the boat. John had found a long slim stick, and with this he poled. But when the water became too deep he paddled with one of the oars which had escaped the fire. Little was said at first as they moved slowly forward toward the lower end of the island.
Hearing no splash, they paddled in a straight course for the haunted island. "I think they've gone toward the north end of the lake, and as they are likely to keep on their way, now is our time," said Henry. They pushed farther into the lake, Ross and Shif'less Sol now handling the paddles with wonderful dexterity.
Shortly after a canoe, in which were four men, paddled off to us and came alongside without showing any signs of apprehension or surprise. I gave them a few beads and they came into the ship. One man, who seemed to have an ascendancy over the others, looked about the ship with some appearance of curiosity, but none of them would venture to go below.
In the mean time, the old house in Haddam township had fallen into a ruinous condition, and, as the farm was very small, and unprofitable chestnut-woodland at that, the whole was leased to an old negro and his wife, who lived there in the most utter solitude, scratching the soil for a few beans and potatoes, and in the autumn gathering nuts, or in the spring roots for beer, with which Old Jake paddled up to Middletown, to bring home a return freight of salt pork and rum.
And being in a canoe he paddled up softly and silently to capture her; but she, seeing him coming, jumped into the water and disappeared. On returning to her mother, who lived at the bottom of the river, she was told to go back to the hunter and be his wife; "for now," said the mother, "you belong to that man." The hunter's name was Mitchihess, the Partridge.
Oo-koo-hoo's wife, Ojistoh, along with her second granddaughter and her two grandsons, occupied one of the three-and-a-half fathom canoes; Amik, and his wife, Naudin, with her baby and eldest daughter, occupied the other; and Oo-koo-hoo and I paddled together in the two-and-a-half fathom canoe.
"It was on that big rock," she explained to John. "The fire was almost upon us when Eben arrived. We thought it was you at first, for we were expecting you, and wondering why you were so long in coming." John made no immediate reply, but paddled steadily forward. He had said nothing about his experience on the plains, and he disliked to tell of it now.
Charley and I, however, paddled along with all our might, hoping that even should our savage pursuers again catch sight of us, they would be still unable to procure canoes in which to follow us. The night was unusually dark, and by Charley's advice we all kept silence, that our voices might not betray our position, should there be any of the enemy near us.
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