to preparations, and the old blockhouse is repaired and made ready for a siege.
When the English try to buy additional land from the Indians, Sanutee, one of the older chiefs, and a few others refuse to assent to the sale, and succeed in having the chiefs who did consent condemned to become outcasts. Among these is Occonestoga, a young chief and the son of Sanutee, who, with the aid of his mother, Matiwan, makes his escape to the whites. Made reckless by drink, Occonestoga consents to return to his people in order to spy upon them for the English. He is caught and condemned to an accursed death. In a thrilling scene his mother kills him in order that he may not die ignominiously.
As Occonestoga had failed to return, Captain Harrison goes himself to spy upon the Indians and is captured. Matiwan, the mother of Occonestoga, aids him to escape from prison because he had shown kindness to her son. Shortly after this the Indians, aided by the Spaniards and certain pirates, begin warfare on the whites and bring torture and devastation upon such of the settlements as had not heeded Captain Harrison's warning. Bess Matthews and her father are saved from the Indians by Chorley, a Spaniard, who has fallen in love with her, though he virtually holds them as his prisoners. The Indians shortly afterwards concentrated their forces on the blockhouse, the attack on which is described in the selection that follows.]
The inmates of the Block House, as we remember, had been warned by Hector of the probable approach of danger, and preparation was the word in consequence. But what was the preparation meant? Under no distinct command, everyone had his own favorite idea of defense, and all was confusion in their councils. The absence of Harrison, to whose direction all parties would most willingly have turned their ears, was now of the most injurious tendency, as it left them unprovided with any
