He was resolved to find out more about this important
town, and his enterprise was in full accord with his duties,
chief among which was to save the vanguard of the army from
ambush.
When the complete darkness of night had come, the three left the
covert, and, after traveling a short distance through the forest,
turned in toward the river. As the town lay on or near the
river, Henry thought they might see some signs of Indian life on
the stream, and from this they could proceed to discoveries.
But when they first saw the river it was desolate. Not a canoe
was moving on its surface, and the three, keeping well in the
undergrowth, followed the bank toward the town. But the forest
soon ceased, and they came upon a great field, where the Senecas
had raised corn, and where stalks, stripped of their ears and
browned by the autumn cold, were still standing. But all the
work of planting, tending, and reaping this great field, like all
the other work in all the Iroquois fields, had been done by the
Iroquois women, not by the warriors.
Beyond the field they saw fruit trees, and beyond these, faint
lines of smoke, indicating the position of the great Seneca
Castle.
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