170 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



ton's servant was in it. The next moment we were 

 surrounded by a score of Acadians and half-a-dozen 

 Americans. 



It appeared that the Acadians, so soon as they per- 

 ceived the prairie to be on fire, had got into a boat 

 and descended a creek that flowed into the Chicot 

 creek, on which we now were. The beasts of the 

 forest and prairie, flying to the water, found them- 

 selves enclosed in the angle formed by the two creeks, 

 1 ~ and their retreat being cut off by the fire, they fell an 

 I easy prey to the Acadians, wild, half-savage fellows, 

 \ who slaughtered them in a profusion, and with a 

 brutality that excited our disgust, a feeling which 

 1 the Americans seemed to share. 

 L- " Well, stranger ! " said one of the latter, an old 

 man, to Carleton, " do you go with them Acadians or 

 come with us ? " 



" Who are you, my friends 1 " 



" Friends ! " repeated the Yankee, shaking his 

 head, "your friendships are soon made. Friends, 

 indeed ! We ain't that yet ; but if you be minded 

 to come with us, well and good." 



" I met these American gentlemen," now put in 

 Martin, "and when they heard that you had lost 

 your way, and were out of provisions, they were so 

 good as to come and seek you." 



" You be'n't much used to the prairie, I reckon ? " 

 observed the American who had spoken before. 



" No, indeed, my friend," said I. 



