The Sergeant Of Grenadiers In Particular, Was Sunk To His
Breast-Bone, And So Firmly Fixed In That The Efforts
Of many men were required
to extricate him, which was effected in the moment after I had ordered one of
The ropes, destined to bind the captive Indians, to be fastened under his arms.
[*I had often read of this contrivance to facilitate the passage of a morass.
But I confess, that in my confusion I had entirely forgotten it, and probably
should have continued to do so until too late to be of use.]
Having congratulated each other on our escape from this 'Serbonian Bog,'
and wiped our arms (half of which were rendered unserviceable by the mud)
we once more pushed forward to our object, within a few hundred yards of which
we found ourselves about half an hour before sunrise. Here I formed
the detachment into three divisions, and having enjoined the most perfect
silence, in order, if possible, to deceive Indian vigilance, each division
was directed to take a different route, so as to meet at the village
at the same moment.
We rushed rapidly on, and nothing could succeed more exactly than the arrival
of the several detachments. To our astonishment, however, we found
not a single native at the huts; nor was a canoe to be seen on any part
of the bay. I was at first inclined to attribute this to our arriving
half an hour too late, from the numberless impediments we had encountered.
But on closer examination, there appeared room to believe, that many days
had elapsed since an Indian had been on the spot, as no mark of fresh fires,
or fish bones, was to be found.
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