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Down the South Shore the voyagers held their way, anchoring for the night near Brant Rock. A head wind drove them to take shelter in a harbor which Champlain called Port St. Louis, the same which, fifteen years afterward, welcomed the brave Pilgrims. The shore was at that time lined with wigwams and garden-patches. The inhabitants were very friendly.
And so while the squaws were pitching a tent in a spot somewhat removed from the encampment, Cameron poked about among the tents and wigwams of which the Indian encampment consisted, but found for the most part only squaws and children and old men. He came back to his wife greatly disturbed. "The young bucks are gone, Mandy. I must get after this thing quickly. I wish I had Jerry here. Let's see?
And, for the same reason, he taught the white man to make big lodges of wood, and brick and stone, and to swim over the waters in large canoes with wings: while to the red man he gave the forests and prairies, with the deer, and bear, and buffalo, and caused him to dwell in very small wigwams made of bark.
After the meal he wandered out of the lodge; but there was little for him to see except the dark shapes of the wigwams and here and there a group of silent Indians seated round their camp fire; and so he returned and took comfortable refuge between the blankets and buffalo robes provided for him by one of Simon Sprott's attendant braves.
In times of peace you have intermarried with them, and I now find in your wigwams many a squaw obtained from among the villages of your rivals." Ugh! They could not deny this. It was evident from their silence and the abject way in which they glanced from one to another that the case had gone against them.
Perhaps if I'd told her the truth instead of all that razzle-dazzle we might but, confound it! I had to play up to my clothes." Thus spoke the brave who was born and reared in the wigwams of the tribe of the Manhattans.
"I have seen the squaws in their wigwams at work on these things, sitting cross-legged on their mats, some had the quills in a little bark dish on their laps, while others held them in their mouths not a very safe nor delicate way; but Indians are not very nice in some of their habits," said Mrs. Frazer.
As the Indians had not yet caught sight of them, they fell upon their knees, and Father Marquette, in fervent prayer, commended themselves to God. They then gave a loud shout, to attract the attention of the Indians, and stepped out into open view. The whole community was instantly thrown into commotion, rushing from the wigwams, and gathering in apparently an anxious group.
It was ever a great pleasure to visit them in their wigwams, to see the young people at their sports, and the older ones at their work: building canoes, or making baskets.
But the squaw was not to be dismissed; for when I followed the Frenchman, she closed in behind looking thunder, not at her abuser, but at me; and The Mute, fearing foul play and pole in hand, loyally brought up the rear of our strange procession. I shall not retail that search through robes and skins and blankets and boxes, in foul-smelling, vermin-infested wigwams. It was fruitless.
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