A detachment of a hundred
commenced a false attack on the south-east angle, with a view to draw
the whole attention of the garrison to that point. They hoped that while
the chief force of the station crowded there, the opposite point would
be left defenceless. In this instance they reckoned without their host.
The people penetrated their deception, and instead of returning their
fire, commenced what had been imprudently neglected, the repairing their
palisades, and putting the station in a better condition of defence. The
tall and luxuriant strammony weeds instructed these wary backwoodsmen to
suspect that a host of their tawny foe lay hid beneath their sheltering
foliage, lurking for a chance to fire upon them, as they should come
forth for water.
Let modern wives, who refuse to follow their husbands abroad, alleging
the danger of the voyage or journey, or the unhealthiness of the
proposed residence, or because the removal will separate them from the
pleasures of fashion and society, contemplate the example of the wives
of the defenders of this station. These noble mothers, wives, and
daughters, assuring the men that there was no probability that the
Indians would fire upon them, offered to go out and draw water for the
supply of the garrison, and that even if they did shoot down a few of
them, it would not reduce the resources of the garrison as would the
killing of the men. The illustrious heroines took up their buckets, and
marched out to the spring, espying here and there a painted face, or an
Indian body crouched under the covert of the weeds.
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