Imeerawanyee, However,
Whispered That Though He Was Wounded, He Was Not Dead.
A hope now existed
that his life might be saved; and Mr. White, taking Imeerawanyee, Nanbaree,
and a woman
With him, set out for the spot where he was reported to be.
But on their reaching it, they were told by some people who were there
that the man was dead, and that the corpse was deposited in a bay about
a mile off. Thither they accordingly repaired, and found it as described,
covered - except one leg, which seemed to be designedly left bare - with
green boughs and a fire burning near it. Those who had performed the funeral
obsequies seemed to have been particularly solicitous for the protection
of the face, which was covered with a thick branch, interwoven with grass
and fern so as to form a complete screen. Around the neck was a strip
of the bark of which they make fishing lines, and a young strait stick
growing near was stripped of its bark and bent down so as to form an arch
over the body, in which position it was confined by a forked branch
stuck into the earth.
On examining the corpse, it was found to be warm. Through the shoulder
had passed a musquet ball, which had divided the subclavian artery
and caused death by loss of blood. No mark of any remedy having been applied
could be discovered. Possibly the nature of the wound, which even among us
would baffle cure without amputation of the arm at the shoulder, was deemed
so fatal, that they despaired of success, and therefore left it to itself.
Had Mr. White found the man alive, there is little room to think that he could
have been of any use to him; for that an Indian would submit to so formidable
and alarming an operation seems hardly probable.
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