Indians in War Paint

Before nightfall, and while we were standing well in to the eastern shore, we saw a party of Susquehanoughs in a canoe close under the shelter of the land, who wore their war paint, which is to say that their faces and bodies were covered with lines of red and black, giving to them a most hideous appearance, and causing much alarm among our people, for it was seemingly good proof that all the brown men of that tribe had risen against us.

Master Lewger, however, perhaps only with the view of quieting our fears, claimed that those whom we had seen were the younger men, and mayhap had put on the war paint without the knowledge of their chiefs.

"Whether it has been done by some of the hot-heads among the brown men to frighten us, or whether the whole tribe be keen for bloodshed, still must we go on," John said to me in a low tone, as if fearing I might show the white feather at a time when my elders were watching closely to see how I bore myself, and I answered him, that while my heart was faint at thought of danger, he need feel no anxiety that I would disgrace the family to which I belonged, or the province whose name had been given me.

When the sun went down and night came, watches were set and kept during all the hours of darkness, lest an attack be made upon us. Meanwhile we carried a light at our masthead, as did the Dove, to the end that the vessels might not go far one from the other.