THE YEMASSEE. A ROMANCE OF CAROLINA. BY THE AUTHOR OF “GUY RIVERS," "MARTIN FABER," &c. "Thus goes the empire down-the people shout, IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. SECOND EDITION. NEW-YORK: PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, AND SOLD BY THE PRINCIPAL BOOKSELLERS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES. 1835.. jh Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1835, By HARPER & BROTHERS, the Clerk's Office of the Southern District of New-York. THE YEMASSEE. CHAPTER I. "For love and war are twins, and both are made SOME men only live for great occasions. They sleep in the calm-but awake to double life, and unlooked-for activity, in the tempest. They are the zephyr in peace, the storm in war. They smile until you think it impossible they should ever do otherwise, and you are paralyzed when you behold the change which an hour brings about in them. Their whole life in public would seem a splendid deception; and as their minds and feelings are generally beyond those of the great mass which gathers about, and in the end depends upon them, so they continually dazzle the vision and distract the judgment of those who passingly observe them. Such men become the tyrants of all the rest, and, as there are two kinds of tyranny in the world, they either enslave to cherish or to destroy. Of this class was Harrison,-erratic, daring, yet thoughtful,—and not to be measured by such a mind as that of the pastor, Matthews. We have seen his agency-a leading agency-in much of the business of the preceding narrative. It was not an agency of the moment, but of continued exertion, the result of a due recognition of the duties required at his hands. Nor is this agency to be discontinued now. He is still busy, and, under his direction and with his assistance, the sound of the hammer, and the deep echo of the axe, in the hands of Granger, the smith, and Hector, 66 were heard without intermission in the Block House, closing rivets up," and putting all things in a state of preparation for those coming dangers which his active mind had predicted. He was not to be deceived by the thousand shows which are apt to deceive others. He looked more deeply into principles and the play of moods in other men, than is the common habit; and while few of the borderers estimated with him the amount of danger and difficulty which he felt to be at hand, he gave himself not the slightest trouble in considering their vague speculations, to which a liberal courtesy might have yielded the name of opinions. His own thoughts were sufficient for him; and while this indifference may seem to have been the product of an excess of self-esteem, we shall find in the sequel that, in the present case, it arose from a strong conviction, the legitimate result of a calm survey of objects and actions, and a cool and deliberate judgment upon them. por We have beheld some of his anxieties in the strong manifestation which he gave to Occonestoga, when he despatched the unfortunate young savage as a spy, on an adventure which had found such an unhappy and unlooked-for termination. Entirely ignorant of the event, it was with no small impatience that his employer waited for his return during the entire night and the better tion of the ensuing day. The distance was not so great between the two places, but that the fleet-footed Indian might have readily overcome it in a night, giving him sufficient allowance of time also for all necessary discoveries; and, doubtless, such would have been the case but for his ill-advised whisper in the ear of Hiwassee, and the not less ill-advised visit to the cottage of Matiwan. The affection of the mother for the fugitive and outlawed son, certainly, deserved no less; but while it demanded that regardful return, which, amid all his errors, he fondly gave her, the policy of the warrior was sadly foregone in that indiscreet proceeding. His failure-the extent yet unknown to Harrison-left the latter doubtful whether to ascribe it to his misfortune, or to treachery; and this doubt contributed greatly to his solicitude. In spite of the suggestions of Granger, who knew the young warrior of old, he could not help suspecting him of desertion from the English cause as a concession by which to secure himself a reinstatement in the confidence of his people; and this suspicion, while it led to new preparations for the final issue, on the part of Harrison, was fruitful at the same time of exaggerated anxiety to his mind. To much of the drudgery of hewing and hammering, therefore, he subjected himself with the rest; and though cheerful in its performance, the most casual observer could have readily seen how much station and education had made him superior to such employ. Having thus laboured for some time, he proceeded to other parts of his assumed duties, and mounting his steed,-a favourite and fine chestnutand followed by Dugdale, who had been carefully muzzled, he took his way in a fleet gallop through the intricacies of the surrounding country. The mystery was a singular one which hung over Harrison in all that region. It was strange how people loved him-how popular he had become, even while in all intrinsic particulars so perfectly unknown. He had somehow won golden opinions from all the borderers, wild-untameable, and like the savages, as in many cases they were; and the utmost confidence was placed in his opinions, even when, as at this time was the case, they happened to differ from the general tenour of their own. This confidence, indeed, had been partially given in the first instance, from the circumstance of his having taken their lead suddenly, when all were panic stricken around; and with an audacity that looked like madness, but which in a time of panic is good policy, had gone forth to the encounter with the Coosaws, a small but desperate tribe, which had risen, without any other warning than the war-whoop, upon the Beaufort settlement. His valour on this occasion, obtained from the Indians themselves the nom de guerre of Coosah-moray-te, or the Coosaw |