Beadle's Dime Novels No. 153: Mohawk Nat — page 8: what you’re looking at

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

10 MOHAWK NAT. to devise ways and means of protecting themselves from these inroads of their foe. The frequent incursions of the French had caused the in- habitants of the region north of the Mohawk to organize, ready to fly to arms at @ moment’s warning. These men were eminently fitted, by sturdy strength and spirit, to deal with their crafty and implacable enemy, in whose service the savages found full exercise for their tiger-like propensities. To hit the bull’s-eye at three hundred yards, and drive a nail at fifty paces with a rifle-ball, was an easy performance for those Mohawk rangers; and they were as practiced in the wiles of savage warfare as the Indians themselves, and knew as well the paths through the mountaivs. Such men, ghoos- ~ ing their own officers and believing. in them, were far superior to the best troops sent out by the crown—Scotch and Irish automatons, who did well in fighting a civilized foe upon the open plain, or in forcing fortifications; but in the woods, fighting savages, they were, in most cases, extremely inefii- cient, : _A group of men were gathered on the north bank of the ‘ Mobawk, not far from what is now the village of Rome. Evidently inhabitants of the region, they were dressed in the strong “ homespun” so well suited to their rough life. Hardy, wiry-looking fellows, they formed the background of our civ- ilization, and from their loins sprung many of the distin- guished sons of the Empire State. Only two of the group demand particular attention in this connection. One was a young man of prepossessing appearance, standing on the bank of the stream, looking carelessly to the south. His hight wag fully six feet one in his moccasins, with a frame admirably proportioned. His dress was somewhat different from that of his companions, being of heavy stuff, of a biu- ish color, formed into a sort of blouse gathered at the waist by a buckskin belt. His legs were cased in tight-fitting leg- gings of the same material, ornamented by rows of buttons on the sides, and drawn under a pair of neat moccasins at the ankles. On his head was a black hat, with a broad brim, u good protection from the rays of the sun, This bat was ornamented by a drooping feather of a dark color, His face, conmiclooolks. com