The Story of Tonty Part 12

[12] Relation of Henri de Tonty (cited in Margry, I). "Comme cette riviere se divise en trois chenaux, M. de la Salle fut descouvrer celuy de la droite, je fus a celuy du mileu et le Sieur d'Autray a celuy de la gauche."

[13] Abridged from Francis Parkman's version of La Salle's proclamation. The Proces Verbal is a long doc.u.ment.

VII.

AN ADOPTION.

"What does he want?" inquired Tonty.

"He is determined to speak with you, Monsieur de Tonty, from what I can gather out of his words."

"Let him wait in the mission house, then," said Tonty, "until Monsieur de la Salle has ended his business."

"I have ended," said La Salle. "It is time I ordered my men and baggage and canoes out of Fort Frontenac."

"Monsieur, remain, and let an order from you be taken to the gate."

"Some of those sulky fellows need my hand over them, Tonty. Besides, there are matters which must be definitely settled before I leave the fort. I have need to go myself, besides the obligation to deliver this runaway girl, on whom her uncle La Salle is always bringing penances."

Barbe sprung up and put herself in the att.i.tude of accompanying him.

"Mademoiselle," said Tonty, "the rain is still falling. If Monsieur de la Salle can carry this hide over you, it will be some protection."

He took up the buffalo skin, and shook it to loosen any dust which might be clinging to the s.h.a.g.

"Monsieur, you are very good," she answered. "But it is not necessary for me."

"Mademoiselle cares very little about a wetting," said La Salle. "She was born to be a princess of the backwoods. Call in your Indian before we go, Tonty. He may have some news for us."

Tonty spoke to the sentinel, whose fingers visibly held the door, and he let pa.s.s a tall Iroquois brave carrying such a bundle of rich furs as one of that race above the condition of squaw rarely deigned to lift.

His errand was evidently peaceable. He paused and stood like a prince.

Neither La Salle nor Tonty remembered his face, though both felt sure he came from the mission village of friendly Iroquois near Fort Frontenac.

"What does my brother want?" inquired La Salle, with sympathy he never showed to his French subordinates.

"He waits to speak to his white brother with the iron hand," answered the Iroquois.

"Have you brought us bad news?" again inquired La Salle.

"Good news."

"What is it?"

"It is only to my brother with the iron hand."

"Can you not speak in the presence of Monsieur de la Salle?" demanded Tonty.

With exquisite reserve the Indian stood silent, waiting the conditions he needed for the delivery of his message.

"It is nothing which concerns me," said La Salle to Tonty. He prepared to stalk into the weather with Barbe.

Tonty spoke a few words to the waiting savage, who heard without returning any sign, and then followed Barbe, stretching the buffalo hide above her head. When La Salle observed this he failed to ridicule his lieutenant, but took one side of the s.h.a.ggy canopy in his own hold. It was impossible for the girl to go dry-shod, but Tonty directed her way over the best and firmest ground. They made a solemn procession, for not a word was spoken. When they came to the fortress gate, Tonty again bestowed the robe around her as he had done when she entered the chapel, and stood bareheaded while Barbe--whispering "Adieu, monsieur"--pa.s.sed out of his sight.

"I have thought of this, Tonty," said La Salle as he entered; "when she is a few years older she shall come to the fort on the Illinois, if I again reap success."

"Monsieur de la Salle, I am bound to tell you it will be dangerous for me ever to see mademoiselle again."

"Monsieur de Tonty," responded the explorer with his close smile, "I am bound to tell you I think it will be the safest imaginable arrangement for her."

The gate closed behind him, and Tonty carried back an exhilarated face to the waiting Iroquois.

He entered Father Hennepin's chapel again, and the Indian followed him to the hearth.

They stood there, ready for conference, the small black savage eye examining Tonty's face with open approval.

"Now let me have your message," said the Italian. "Have I ever seen you before? What is your name?"

"Sanomp," answered the Iroquois. "My white brother with the iron hand has not seen me before."

[Ill.u.s.tration]

He spread open on the bench Barbe had occupied a present of fine furs and dried meat.

"Why does my brother bring me these things?" inquired Tonty, realizing as he looked at the gift how much of this barbarian's wealth was bestowed in such an offering.

"Listen," said Sanomp.[14] He had a face of benevolent gravity,--the unhurried, sincere face of man living close to Nature. "It is a chief of the Seneca tribe who speaks to my white brother."

"I have met a chief of the Seneca tribe before," remarked Tonty, smiling. "It was in the country of the Illinois, and he wrapped my scalp-lock around his fingers."

Sanomp smiled, too, without haste, and continued his story.

"I left my people to live near the fort of my French brothers because it was told me the man with a hand of iron was here. When I came here the man with a hand of iron was gone. So I waited for him. Our lives are consumed in waiting for the best things. Five years have I stood by the mouth of Cataraqui. And this morning the man with a hand of iron pa.s.sed before my face."

He spoke a mixture of French and Iroquois which enabled Tonty to catch his entire meaning.

"But this hand could not betray me from the lake, to eyes that had never seen me before," objected the Italian.

Advancing one foot and folding his arms in the att.i.tude of a narrator, the Indian said,--

"Listen. At that time of life when a young Iroquois retires from his tribe to hide in the woods and fast until his okie[15] is revealed to him, four days and four nights the boy Sanomp lay on the ground, rain and dew, moonlight and sunlight pa.s.sing over him. The boy Sanomp looked up, for an eagle dropped before his eyes. He then knew that the eagle was his okie, and that he was to be a warrior, not a hunter or medicine-man. But the eagle dropped before the feet of a soldier the image of my white brother, and the soldier held up a hand of yellow metal. The boy heard a voice coming from the vision that said to him, 'Warrior, this is thy friend and brother. Be to him a friend and brother. After thou hast seven times followed the war path go and wait by the mouth of Cataraqui until he comes.' So when I had seven times followed the war path I came, and my brother being pa.s.sed by, I waited."

Tonty's square brown Italian face was no more sincere than the redder aquiline visage fronting him and telling its vision.

"My brother Sanomp comes in a good time," he remarked.