“Bien, Madame! it is the place we always stop at.”
“Does Monsieur John pay you for bringing his family down?”
“Oh, yes; Monsieur John has given us an order on the sutler, at the fort down below.”
“To be paid when you deliver us safe at the fort down below. It seems I shall be there before you, and I shall arrange that matter. Monsieur John never dreamed that this would be your conduct.”
The Frenchmen consulted together, and the result was that Guardapie and two others jumped into the boat, took their oars, and rather sulkily rowed us the remaining two miles to Fort Howard.
FORT HOWARD—OUR RETURN HOME
We soon learned that a great panic prevailed at Green Bay on account of the Sauks.[[108]] The people seemed to have possessed themselves with the idea that the enemy would visit this place on their way to Canada to put themselves under the protection of the British Government. How they were to get there from this point—whether they were to stop and fabricate themselves bark canoes for the purpose, or whether they were to charter one of Mr. Newberry’s schooners for the trip, the good people did not seem fully to have made up their minds. One thing is certain, a portion of the citizens were nearly frightened to death, and were fully convinced that there was no safety for them, but within the walls of the old dilapidated fort, from which nearly all the troops had been withdrawn and sent to Fort Winnebago, some time previous.