“Please, Captain,” said the taller one, “put our names down, and give us each a gun.”
“What! To go to the wars?” I asked.
“Yes, sir,” the younger replied. “The Indians killed our mother, and we want to kill some of them.”
“Not now,” I said kindly. “When you are a little older you may both go.”
They turned away, sorely disappointed. Indeed the spirit of battle seemed born in the children of this land, and they nursed it with their mother’s milk. There was much need of it, though.
About noon, two long teams of oxen were seen winding along the road from Boston. They drew heavy wagons, on which were two good sized cannon, in addition to the small ones we had. There was also a sufficient supply of ammunition, and I was very glad of this increase to our power.
Though it cost us no little labor to get these guns aboard, we finally accomplished it, and they were placed, one in the bow of each sloop, where they could do the most good.
When all this had been done, and it was well into the afternoon, I had a chance to sit down and map out my plans. Another letter, with more explicit instructions, had come to me from the Governor by the hands of a second messenger. In the meantime I had learned somewhat of the man de Vilebon, with whom I was to engage, shortly.
Soon after he came to Canada he saw the fierce fighting qualities of the red men, and, with much cunning, he made treaties with them, persuading them to become his allies. He promised them that the hated English would soon be driven from the land, the homes they had builded being allowed as plunder for the Indians. It was by such talk as this, and the manner in which he consorted in the daily lives and practices of the savages, that de Vilebon had won to his side many influential chiefs and their followings.
One way the French took to incite the Indians was to pay for the scalps of the English settlers. There was a scale of prices, so much for a man’s, so much for a woman’s and less yet for the children’s. There were other reasons why the Indians preferred to fight with the French and against the English. The French almost lived with the savages, adopting their mode of dress, painting their faces with the brilliant pigments, and wearing the feathered head pieces.