I was grieved that such a spot should lie wasting; all it
wanted was a few sons of New England to make its resources of great
commercial value. A ponderous mountain rose nearly to the sky, distant
some two days' journey, in the west. After breakfasting on wild fruit
(of which there was a great abundance) and limpid water, we set out
for it, making a straight line through the forest; but before reaching
the summit, and after three days' scrubbing, we discovered smoke
curling gently upward here and there in the clear blue atmosphere.
'Lord bless ye, John!' I exclaimed, halting suddenly, 'there is living
critters here, as I'm a Down-easter.'
"'I see 'um moving!' he rejoined, nervously surveying the spot. And
in another hour we were in the midst of a tribe of savages, swarthy
and of vicious appearance. Such yelling, hallooing, jumping, and
cutting wild antics, you never saw before, nor could pen
describe. Nobody could have understood their chattering, which was a
species of growl and shortly accented muttering. Forsooth! it was as
unintelligible as that language so generally diffused through
diplomatic notes and protocols.
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