Laborious
indeed was the duty of the devoted crew. Several attempts
had been renewed by the Indians to surprise them; but,
although their little fleets stole cautiously and
noiselessly, at the still hour of midnight, to the spot
where, at the last expiring rays of twilight, they had
beheld her carelessly anchored, and apparently lulled
into security, the subject of their search was never to
be met with. No sooner were objects on the shore rendered
indistinct to the eye, than the anchor was silently
weighed, and, gliding wherever the breeze might choose
to carry her, the light bark was made to traverse the
lake, with every sail set, until dawn. None, however,
were suffered to slumber in the presumed security afforded
by this judicious flight. Every man was at his post; and,
while a silence so profound was preserved, that the noise
of a falling pin might have been heard upon her decks,
every thing was in readiness to repel an attack of their
enemies, should the vessel, in her course, come accidentally
in collision with their pigmy fleets. When morning broke,
and no sign of their treacherous foes was visible, the
vessel was again anchored, and the majority of the crew
suffered to retire to their hammocks, while the few whose
turn of duty it chanced to be, kept a vigilant look-out,
that, on the slightest appearance of alarm, their slumbering
comrades might again be aroused to energy and action.
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