Master Devoll laughed at his wife's fears, claiming that the savages were as peaceful as lambs, although at the time I doubted very much whether he believed his own words.
However, the women and children did not remain aboard our flatboat, for Master Devoll took them to the Mayflower, which was moored near by, where were better accommodations for sleeping, and in our craft only Ben Cushing and I were left on guard.
We two lads spent a full hour that evening, congratulating ourselves upon having finished the journey and questioning as to what we would do now we were come into this Ohio country.
We had been more than eight weeks on the road, advancing all the time, one day after another, except the eight and forty hours which were spent with Master Hiples in that village where live the Dunkards, and, save for the death of the two horses, we had come through with no greater mishap than the loss of a two-quart tin measure and a blanket belonging to Mistress Rouse. This was doing remarkably well, when you consider that never one of the party, not even the men, had undertaken such a journey before.
In the morning we found the Muskingum River frozen from shore to shore, and until spring came the stream was never so free of ice that we could have propelled our boat, therefore we arrived, as one might say, just in the nick of time, for a delay of four and twenty hours would have found us frozen in at some point above the town, from which it would have been necessary to continue on foot.