The Frozen Crew Of The Ice-Bound Ship; Or, Terrors Of The Arctic Region — page 73: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE FROZEN CREW AND ICE-BOUND SHIP. winter was cutting with its chilling coldness, my hardy frame in the air. “* How have I joyed to see her calmly repose, and lightly have I placed the rein-deers skin upon her to shield her from the piercing blast. ‘‘ She is dishonoured— disgraced! she will no more draw the source of her existence from the hunting grounds of the brave and the virtuous.” As Manitto ceased speaking, several human heads could be seen above a few logs of drift wood, form- ing « barrier to the hut of Paul Jones. The next moment, numerons forms appeared to float as it were to it’s portal. A wild and despairing cry was uttered on every side, and with it a body of Indians presented them- selves to the surprised inmates of the dwelling. Foremost in this party, was the infamous Corah. With uplifted arms and startling eyeballs, she ad- dressed the chief, Manitto. ‘‘ Husband,” she exclaimed, “‘ your confidence has been betrayed, and a wife demands a tribute for her fame. I need urge no words of idle encourage- 3? ment. “Speak on.” ‘* Yonder pale-face,”’ she added, pointing to Gon- zalvi, whose terror might have been construed into guilt, “ would have stained my honour. He dragged me, regardless of my cries, to his secret haunt. I swore to die ere 1 would yield to his desires ! I struggled while strength remained, and eventually escaped.” ““ My eyes, what a crammer she can tell !’’ ejacu- lated Brandy-nosed Nick ; “I saw the whole of the affair, from beginning to enc.” ‘Put a clapper on your jawing tackle,’ whispered Paul Jones; “let me see how far this woman’s effrontery will carry her.’’ “Ts it thus the white man repays Manitto’s friendship to his comrades *” exclaimed the chief, in anger. «You shall now feel my resentment,” he added, “the resentment of a cofiding, and injured hus- band.” *‘ If your mission regards us, as your words express, I at least must receive it’s import with doubt,” re- joined Paul Jones, ‘‘Iamconvinced that the charge against Gonzalvi is groundless, and that your wite, for some evil motive, has spoken falsely.’’ Manitto for the moment paused, to suppress those passions which the recollection of his supposed in- juries caused to burn with too bright a flame. “The white man adds insult to injury ”’ the chief exclaimed, breaking his previous silence. “ Listen: Manitto was born a chief among the White Beaver’s; he has seen the suns of fifty sammers make the snows of fifty winters run offin streams ; he never saw the pale-face—he was happy. “‘ Here are scars,” he continued, “‘ which the grey- head has taken in battle for his tribe, but he has left marks on the back of the Huron that he must hide, like a squaw, under the painted cloth he wears.” ' “Thad thought,” observed Paul Jones, “ that the Indian warrior was patient, and that his spirit knew not the pain his body suffered.” “When the enemy tied Manitto to the stake,” he said proudly, he laughed in their faces, and told them, women struck as hard as they. When the white men deal him a blow more deadly than the Hurons, he tells them he never forgives an injury.’ “You have heard only——” “T will hear no more !” exclaimed Manitto, inter- rupting Paul Jones, and bending his fierce looks on the countenance of Gonzalvi, who shrunk within himself in dread. ° by “ Drag the perfidious youth to the precipice beyond the cave; from the highest pinnacle let his body be C3 hurled, and his carcass left a prey to the wild vulture and red-fox !” Fear which had choked the utterance of Gonzalvi, at length gave way to a despairing shriek, as he heard the terrible doom pronounced. “Oh, let me speak !” he exclaimed, frantically. “On my soul, I am innocent. “ Husband, hear not a word, he would mislead you ; if you deem Corah guilty, he bares her bosom to your dagger—sh closes not her eyes till she sees her honour indicated.” | “ Knough! my indignant soul reads truth in thy action,” said Manitto, embracing Corah, who had abjectly cast herself into his arms, ‘‘ Lead the vile culprit to his punishment. I from the icy mount. will give the signal for his death.” The Indians darted upon Gonzalvi, like kites upon a fleshy morsel. Gonzalvi threw himself down on his knees to sue for grace. He strove to move compassion by a food of tears. ** Mercy—mercy !” he cried, in a piteous tone, but he found none at the hands of his pitiless perse- cutors,”’ He was removed from the hut, in a fainting state, and attended by a guard bearing torches to the place destined to be that of his execution. Paul Jones had not been a silent observer of thesé atrocious proceedings; finding his entreaties on behalf of the victim of the malicious Corah unavail- ing, he with Brandy-nosed Nick, rushed from the spot to carry out a project that would inflict a sum- mary vengeance on those who were about to take the life of their unfortunate comrade. The flesh of the walrus, or sea-horse, valued by the inhabitants of the Arctic Regions, did not seem to have come amiss to our Northern voyagers. The crew of the El Malachor now rejoiced at find- ing a substitute for their daily diminishing salt pork, hile walrus hunting, and excitement of the chase relieved, in a great measure, the monotony attending a life in the snowy wilderness to which they had strayed. It was late in the day when a party, enjoying the sport to which we have alluded, came upon the walrus basking upon the ice. The pirates were in a boat, and had observed the animal at a distance. “ There’s one, by my ancestors bone’s !” said. Black Bill, who was the first to perceive the walrus. “I can make out the tawny jacket, brown as Scotch snuff, as clear as the mast-head on a sunshiny day in the tropics.” “ He wriggles more like a sea-bear,”’ replied De’il Rob, gazing at the point Black Bill had indicated. “No, that’s a morse,’ continued Black Pill, “see his hind flippers are connected together by loose skin, which give him the facilities of swimming out of our reach, unless we catch him napping.” The walrus had recognised her enemies. Displeased she roared. The sound resembled that of a roused lion. ‘‘]’d sooner be keel-haul’d, than hear that song over again,” said another pirate, Hal Harpoon, “ and confound her lantern jaws, you can squeeze nothing else out of them.” “ Ay, ay,” returned Black Bill, “we must look sharp after the crittur, or she will run before the wind, and give us the slip.” “So much the better,’ answered Hal Harpoon. “J don’t like to tackle em, when their cubs are alongside, and the snout of the young un was Just peeping out of water as you spoke.”