VI. AN INDIAN STRATAGEM. ANON. 1. DURING the war of the American revolution, a regiment' of foot soldiers was stationed upon the confines of an extensive savanna3 in the southern part of the Union. Its particular office was to guard every avenue of approach to the main army. The sentinels, whose posts' penetrated into the woods, were supplied from the ranks; but they were perpetually surprised upon their posts by the Indians, and borne off their stations, without communicating any alarm, or being heard of afterwards. 2. One morning, the sentinels having been stationed as usual over night, the guard went at sunrise to relieve a post which extended a considerable distance into the wood. The sentinel was gone. The surprise was great; but the circumstance had occurred before. They left another man, and departed, wishing him better luck. "You need not be afraid," said the man, with warmth; "I shall not desert." 3. The sentinels were replaced every four hours, and, at the appointed time, the guard again marched to relieve the post. To their inexpressible astonishment, the man was gone. They searched round the spot, but no traces of him could be found. It was now more necessary than ever that the station should not remain unoccupied; they left another man, and returned to the guard-house. 4. The superstition of the soldiers was awakened, and terror ran through the regiment. The colonel', being apprised of the occurrence, signified his intention to accompany the guard when they relieved the sentinel they had left. At the appointed time, they all marched together; and again, to their unutterable wonder, they found the post vacant, and the man gone. 5. Under these circumstances, the colonel hesitated 8 whether he should station a whole company on the spot, or whether he should again submit the post to a single sentinel. The cause of these repeated disappearances of men whose courage and honesty were never suspected, must be discovered; and it seemed not likely that this discovery could be obtained by persisting in the old method. 6. Three brave men were now lost to the regiment, and to assign the post to a fourth seemed nothing less than giving him up to destruction. The poor fellow whose turn it was to take the station, though a man in other respects of incomparable resolution, trembled from head to foot. 7. "I must do my duty," said he to the officer; "I know that; but I should like to lose my life with more credit." "I will leave no man," said the colonel, "against his will.” A man immediately stepped from the ranks, and desired to take the post. Every mouth commended his resolution. 8. "I will not be taken alive," said he, "and you shall hear of me at the least alarm. At all events, I will fire my piece if I hear the least noise. If a crow chatters, or a leaf falls, you shall hear my musket. You may be alarmed when nothing is the matter; but you must take the chance as the condition of the discovery." 9. The colonel applauded his courage, and told him he would do right to fire upon the least noise that he could not satisfactorily explain. His comrades shook hands with him, and left him with a melancholy foreboding. The company marched back, and waited the event in the guard-house. 10. An hour had now elapsed, and every ear was upon the rack for the discharge of the musket, when, upon a sudden, the report was heard. The guard immediately marched, accompanied, as before, by the colonel and some of the most experienced officers of the regiment. 11. As they approached the post, they saw the man advancing towards them, dragging another man on the ground by the hair of his head. When they came up to him, it appeared to be an Indian whom he had shot. An explanation was immediately required. 12. "I told you, colonel," said the man, "that I should fire if I heard the least noise. That resolution I took has saved my life. I had not been long at my post when I heard a rustling at some short distance; I looked, and saw a wild hog, such as are common in the woods, crawling along the ground, and seemingly looking for nuts under the trees, among the leaves. 13. "As these animals are so very common, I ceased to consider it seriously, but kept my eyes fixed upon it, and marked its progress among the trees: still there was no need to give the alarm. It struck me, however, as somewhat singular to see this animal making, by a circuitous passage, for a thick grove immediately behind my post. I therefore kept my eye more constantly fixed upon it, and, as it was now within a few yards of the coppice ", I hesitated whether I should fire. 14. "My comrades, thought I, will laugh at me for alarming them by shooting a pig. I had almost resolved to let it alone, when, just as it approached the thicket, I thought I observed it give an unusual spring. I no longer hesitated I took my aim, discharged my piece, and the animal was immediately stretched before me, with a groan which I thought to be that of a human creature. 15. "I went up to it, and judge my astonishment when I found that I had killed an Indian. He had enveloped himself with the skin of one of these wild hogs so artfully and completely, his hands and his feet were so entirely concealed in it, and his gait and appearance were so exactly correspondent to that of the animals, that, imperfectly as they were always seen through the trees and bushes, the disguise could not be detected at a distance, and scarcely discovered upon the nearest inspection. He was armed with a dagger and tomahawk '2" 16. The cause of the disappearance of the other sentinels was now apparent. The Indians, sheltered in this disguise, secreted themselves in the coppice, watched for the moment to throw off the skin, burst upon the sentinels without previous alarm, and, too quick to give them an opportunity to discharge their pieces, either stabbed or scalped them. They then bore their bodies away, and concealed them at some distance in the leaves. 1 REĢ'I-MENT. A body of troops com manded by a colonel, and consist- 2 CŎN'FİNEŞ. Borders, edges. 5 PōST. A place where a soldier or a power in producing results the causes of which are unknown. 7 COLONEL (kür'nel). The chief commander of a regiment. 8 COMPANY. A subdivision of a regi- 9 IN-COM'PA-RA-BLE. number of troops are stationed; a 10 CIR-CU'I-TOŬS. direct. Unequalled; Roundabout; not 6 SU-PER-STI'TION. Excess of scruple | 11 CŎP'PICE. A wood of small trees; in matters of religion; a belief in a copse. the direct agency of supernatural | 12 TŎM'д-HÂWK. An Indian hatchet. VII. THE LOSS OF THE ROYAL GEORGE. COWPER. [William Cowper, an English poet, was born in 1731, and died in 1800. His poetry is written in a vigorous and manly style, and has an energetic inoral tone. It abounds in charming pictures of natural scenery and domestic life. His smaller pieces enjoy great and deserved popularity. Few events have ever fallen with more startling sorrow upon the public mind of Great Britain than the loss of the Royal George, in the month of August, 1782, while lying at anchor off Spithead, near Portsmouth. She carried one hundred and eight guns, was commanded by Admiral Kempenfelt, and was deemed the finest ship in the British navy. Being just ready to go to sea, she was inclined a little on one side, either to stop a leak or for some similar object. But so little risk was anticipated from the operation, that the admiral with his officers and men, nearly a thousand souls in all, remained on board. Besides these, the ship was crowded with persons from the shore; among whom were some three hundred women and children. In this state of things, the vessel was struck by a sudden flaw of wind, and being probably too much inclined, she was thrown farther over: the water rushed into her portholes ; she filled instantly, and sunk. About three hundred persons were saved, but not less than a thousand perished. The effect of so fearful a tragedy may be more fully apprehended when we bear in mind that the whole British loss in the great naval battle of Trafalgar, fought a few years after. in its consequences the most important naval battle of modern times, -was less than seventeen hundred.] 1. TOLL for the brave, The brave that are no more; 2. Eight hundred of the brave, And laid her on her side. 3. A land breeze shook the shrouds, Down went the Royal George, 4. Toll for the brave; Brave Kempenfelt is gone; 5. It was not in the battle; No tempest gave the shock; 6. His sword was in its sheath, |