advantage to hasten to the bows of the canoe, where,
striding across the body of his insensible companion,
he, with a few vigorous strokes of the remaining paddle,
urged the lagging bark rapidly a-head. In no way
intimidated by his disaster, the courageous old man,
again brandishing his cudgel, and vociferating taunts
of defiance, would have continued the pursuit, but
panting as he was, not only with the exertion he had
made, but under the weight of his impatient rider,
in an element in which he was supported merely by
his own buoyancy, the strength and spirit of the animal
began now perceptibly to fail him, and he turned,
despite of every effort to prevent him, towards the
shore. It was fortunate for the former that there
were no arms in the canoe, or neither he nor the horse
would, in all probability, have returned alive; such
was the opinion, at least, pronounced by those who
were witnesses of the strange scene, and who remarked
the infuriated but impotent gestures of Desborough,
as the old man, having once more gotten his steed
into depth, slowly pursued his course towards the
shore, but with the same wild brandishing of his enormous
cudgel, and the same rocking from side to side, until
his body was often at right angles with that of his
jaded but sure-footed beast. As he is, however,
a character meriting rather more than the casual notice
we have bestowed, we shall take the opportunity while
he is hastening to the discomfited officers on the
beach, more particularly to describe him.
Nearly midway between Elliott’s and Hartley’s
points, both of which are remarkable for the low and
sandy nature of the soil, the land, rising gradually
towards the centre, assumes a more healthy and arable
aspect; and, on its highest elevation, stood a snug,
well cultivated, property, called, at the period of
which we write, Gattrie’s farm. From this
height, crowned on its extreme summit by a neat and
commodious farm-house, the far reaching sands, forming
the points above named, are distinctly visible.
Immediately in the rear, and commencing beyond the
orchard which surrounded the house, stretched forestward,
and to a considerable distance, a tract of rich and
cultivated soil, separated into strips by zig-zag
enclosures, and offering to the eye of the traveller,
in appropriate season, the several species of American
produce, such as Indian corn, buck wheat, &c. with
here and there a few patches of indifferent tobacco.
Thus far of the property, a more minute description
of which is unimportant. The proprietors of this
neat little place were a father and son, to the latter
of whom was consigned, for reasons which will appear
presently, the sole management of the farm. Of
him we will merely say, that, at the period of which
we treat, he was a fine, strapping, dark curly-haired,
white-teethed, red-lipped, broad-shouldered, and altogether
comely and gentle tempered youth, of about twenty,
who had, although unconsciously, monopolized the affections
of almost every well favoured maiden of his class,
for miles around him—advantages of nature,
from which had resulted a union with one of the prettiest
of the fair competitors for connubial happiness.
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