of the education of the woods. Only four nights did I sleep in a bed, and then had more small company than I liked to entertain.
I copy here as it was wrote by me, a lad of sixteen, what we saw on a Wednesday. It might have been better spelled.
At evening we were agreeably surprised by
ye sight of thirty odd Indians coming from war
with only one scalp. We gave them some liquor,
which, elevating their spirits, put them in ye humour
of dancing. They seat themselves around
a great fire, and one leaps up as if out of a sleep,
and runs and jumps about ye ring in a most
comicle manner; afterward others. Then begins
there musicians to play and to beat a pot half
full of water, with a deer-skin tied tight over it,
and a gourd with some shott in it to rattle, and
piece of a horse tail tied to it to make it look fine.
The Dutch, then of late come in from
Pennsylvania, I found an uncouth people,
who, having squatted, as we say, on lands
not their own, hoped to acquire cheap titles.
They were merry and full of antic tricks.
I talked with some by an interpreter and
heard them say they cared not who were the
masters, French or English, if only they
