Part 2 (2/2)
This puny appearance continued with hi extraordinary providence
On a trip to the West Indies, which his friends put him upon for his health's sake, the little schooner in which he was embarked was suddenly attacked by soave it such a terrible stroke with his tail as started a plank
The frightened cre to their pumps, but in vain; for the briny flood rushed with such fury into their vessel, that they were glad to quit her, and tumble as fast as they could into their little jolly boat
The event showed that this was as but a leap ”out of the frying pan into the fire”; for their schooner went down so suddenly as not to give them time to take a mouthful of food with them, not even so much as a brown biscuit or a pint of water
After three wretched days of feverish hunger and thirst, they agreed to kill a little cabin dog who had swam to them from the schooner just before she sunk On his raw flesh they feasted without restraint; but the blood they preserved with more economy, to cool their parched lips
In a few days, however, their own blood, for lack of cooling food, became so fiery hot as to scald their brain to frenzy About the tenth day the captain andthe two re sea to the last for WATER! WATER! God of his ive rateful acknowledgments! Scarcely was this ht, standing directly for the boat, as if purposely sent to save the child that was tossing in it on the gloomy waves
Little Marion was so weak that he could not stir hand or foot to climb up the side of the vessel The captain, however, soon had him on board; and by iven him at first, recruited him so fast, that, by the time he reached his native shores, he was in much better health than ever So that on his return to his friends, it was found, as is often the case, that as at first looked on as a greatHis constitution seerohile his cheeks, quitting their pale suet-colored cast, assu to the best accounts that I have been able to procure, Marion never thought of another trip to sea, but continued in his native parish, in that s, a cultivator of the earth, till his twenty-seventh year
A report then prevailing that the Cherokee Indians werethe frontier settlers, Marion turned out with his rifle, as a volunteer under governor Lyttleton The affair, however, proved to be a s were not exactly in the train they wished, sent on a deputation with their wahten the old chain of friendshi+p with the whites; and the good-natured governor, thinking them sincere, concluded a treaty with them The troops of course were dismissed, and Marion returned to his plantation
Scarcely, however, had two years elapsed, before the perfidious Cherokees broke out again in a fresh place, killing and driving the defenceless inhabitants at a ain to the governor with the tender of his services to fight for his afflicted countrymen His excellency was so pleased with this second instance of Marion's patriotisave him a first lieutenancy in the provincial line under the brave captain William Moultrie The reported force and fury of the Indians struck such a terror through the colony, that colonel Grant (of the British) with twelve hundred regulars, was ordered out on a forcedfrontiers
On their way they were joined at Ninety-Six, May 14, 1761, by twelve hundred provincials, all men of surest aim with the deadly rifle
To draw off the enemy from their murderous excursions, Col Grant wisely determined to push the war at once into their own country; which was no sooner discovered by them, than they instantly collected their whole force to oppose hih a dark defile or gap in the mountain, which it was resolved should be forced as rapidly as possible
A forlorn hope of thirty brave felloere ordered to explore the dangerous pass: and Marion, though but a young lieutenant, had the honor to be appointed their leader At the head of his command he advanced with rapidity, while the army moved on to support hiloomy defile, when, from behind the rocks and trees, a sheet of fire suddenly blazed forth, which killed twenty-one of his men! With the remainder, he faced about and pushed back with all speed; whereupon great nuhtfully painted, rushed fro places, and with hideous yells and uplifted to but the nearness of the advanced guard saved thelo-American army then prepared themselves for a serious and bloody conflict
An ene the only pass into their country, would, they well knew, fight desperately
And well aware, also what slaughter would follow upon their own defeat, they deter summer's day was before theht spectator of the coh spirits, with justice on their side, and an approving conscience, they cheerfully left the event to Heaven The British were formed in small corps, the more promptly to support the riflean to ht of the ene backwards and forwards, as if not well satisfied with their ground The provincial , flew each to his tree, and the action began
Fro, quite across the defile, the woods appeared as if all on fire; while the incessant crash of small arms tortured the ear like claps of sharpest thunder The s, kept up a dreadful roar, but scarcely did more than bark the trees, or cut off the branches above the heads of the Indians
While, with far less noise, the fatal rifles continued to lessen the nureat spirit for nearly two hours, during which the superiority of the American riflemen was very remarkably displayed For in that time they lost only fifty-one -- whereas of the Indians there fell one hundred and three, which so disheartened theave up their country to the conquerors, who prepared immediately to enter it
Colonel Grant had hoped to surprise their towns, but concluding that their swift-footed runners had given the alarh the wilderness towards the settle that by the destruction of their towns and corn-fields he should drive them into a disposition for peace
Marion often spoke of this part of the war, as of a transaction which he remembered with sorrow ”We arrived,” said he, in a letter to a friend, ”at the Indian towns in the month of July As the lands were rich and the season had been favorable, the corn was bending under the double weight of lusty roasting ears and pods of clustering beans
The furrows seemed to rejoice under their precious loads -- the fields stood thick with bread We encaht in the woods, near the fields, where the whole ar corn, which, with fat venison,we proceeded by order of colonel Grant, to burn down the Indians' cabins So very heartily at the curling fla over the tops of the huts
But to ht I, we surely need not grudge you suchto orders, to cut down the fields of corn, I could scarcely refrain from tears For who could see the stalks that stood so stately with broad green leaves and gaily tasseled shocks, filled with sweet milky fluid and flour, the staff of life; who, I say, without grief, could see these sacred plants sinking under our swords with all their precious load, to wither and rot untasted in theirfields?
”I saw every where around the footsteps of the little Indian children, where they had lately played under the shade of their rustling corn
No doubt they had often looked up with joy to the swelling shocks, and gladdened when they thought of their abundant cakes for the coht I, they will return, and peeping through the weeds with tearful eyes, will hastly ruin poured over their homes and happy fields, where they had so often played
”'Who did this?' they will ask their mothers