164 THE FORTIFICATIONS. 
Company. Imagine my surprise, on entering this 
fortress, to discover all this a pleasant fiction ; 
two small rusty carronades, buried in the ac- 
cumulated dust and rubbish of years, that no 
human power could load, were the sole occupants 
of the mouldy old turrets. 
The bell for breakfast recalling me, I jokingly 
inquired of the trader if he had ever been obliged 
to use this cannon for defensive purposes. He 
laughed as he replied, ‘ There is a tradition that, 
at some remote period, the guns were actually 
fired, not at the rebellious natives, but over their 
heads; instead of being terror-stricken at the 
white man’s thunder, away they all scampered in 
pursuit of the ball, found it, and, marching in 
triumph back to the fort-gate, offered to trade it, 
that it might be fired again !’ 
Breakfast finished, the trader, captain, and 
myself started for the village. Clear of the 
gates, we scrambled down a rocky path, crossed 
a mountain-burn, dividing the Indians from the 
fort, and entered ‘ the city of the redskins ;’ which 
consists of a long row of huts, each hut nearly 
square, the exterior fantastically frescoed in 
hieroglyphic patterns, in white, red, and blue ; 
having however a symbolical meaning or heraldic 
value, like the totum of the Indians east of the 
