ABSTRACT
The next day presented them with spectacles of the most disgusting and alarming nature. As the rum and other plunder had been distributed, the whole village was a scene of intoxication and riot. Numbers lay dead drunk, around the casks of liquor; others were seen staggering and vociferating in the / fields; the women raving, shrieking, and committing more shocking excesses than the men. In some of the wigwams they had tomahawked one another, and shouts of defiance and revenge resounded. Our adventurers were shocked with these brutal scenes, and every moment expected an assault from the mad bacchanalians. 478 Tickle and Sancho were determined to defend the house to the last extremity, and to take advantage of the approaching night, to attempt an escape with their party. Tonondoric himself dreaded the effects of their excess, and agreed, if he could not restore the Indians to good order and tranquillity, to accompany his son’s flight. The young ladies shrunk with apprehension at every alarm, expecting the fatal summons of the chiefs to consummate their destined nuptials. Every measure for defence and flight was vigilantly pursued. In the mean while, as the riot and massacre continued in the village, Tonondoric / went from house to house, from group to group, threatening, reasoning, exhorting them, ‘Countrymen and brothers! what madness has seized you, to embrue your hands in each other’s blood? The most destructive enemy is admitted among us; it confounds the understanding, disfigures the fancy, and washes away the memory of the orator and sage. It unbraces the arm of the warrior, chains his legs to the ground, and causes his limbs to totter and tremble. It makes men talk foolishly like women, and our squaws to act with the indecency and wantonness of men. It sours the good-natured heart, turns the sword of the warrior against his brother, dims the brightest eye, and makes the steadiest head turn round like a whirlpool. ’Tis rum, that destructive poison, which is more fatal to us, and has sent more warriors ignobly to their graves, than all the musquets of our enemies.’ /
