118 WILLIAM BARTRAM 



There are numerous incidents of encounters with Indians and 

 in telHng of these Bartram is able to arouse and maintain a 

 suspense which indicates no mean narrative skill. His first 

 description of meeting with an Indian alone in the forest is an 

 apt illustration of his instinctive mastery of the narrative tech- 

 nique. Deftly he sketches in the setting: " It was drawing on 

 towards the close of day, the skies serene and calm, the air 

 temperately cool . . . the prospect around enchantingly varied 

 and beautiful. . . ." Then comes the directness of his vision: 

 "... on a sudden, an Indian appeared . . . armed with a rifle." 

 Bartram' s reaction to this threatening apparition, his endeavor 

 to elude the Indian's sight by stopping and " keeping large 

 trees between " them, at once sets the stage for a looming con- 

 flict. The antagonists take each other's measure, then the Indian 

 " sat spurs to his horse, and came up on full gallop." The 

 sentences that follow heighten the suspense, so that there is a 

 genuine relief at the denouement, 



I never before this was afraid at the sight of an Indian, but at this time, 

 I must own that my spirits were very much agitated: I saw at once, 

 that being unarmed, I was in his power, and having now but a few 

 moments to prepare, I resigned myself entirely to the will of the 

 Almighty. . . . The intrepid Siminole stopped suddenly, three or four 

 yards before me, and silently viewed me, his countenance angry and 

 fierce, shifting his rifle from shoulder to shoulder and looking about 

 instantly on all sides. I advanced towards him, and with an air of 

 confidence offered him my hand, hailing him, brother; at this he 

 hastily jerked back his arm, with a look of malice, rage, and disdain, 

 seeming every way disconcerted ; ^^ when again looking at me more 

 attentively, he instantly spurred up to me, and, with dignity in his 

 look and action, gave me his hand. 



The tenseness and compression of this incident is not diminished 

 by the construction Bartram places upon the Indian's action in 

 the unspoken words and Romantic sentiments he ascribes to 

 him: 



Possibly the silent language of his soul, during the moment of suspense 

 (for I believe his design was to kill me when he first came up) was 



"The Van Doren edition substitutes "discontented" (p. 45), an emenda- 

 tion taken over from the London edition (p. 21). 



