Page 7
History of Orange County
Towns of Goshen, Hamptonburgh and Chester
Page 7
When the cows were landed their neck-bells were unstopped, having been silenced while on board the boat, and this loosening of their clappers added their eternal “ding dong bell” to the already opened mouth yelpings of the dogs, a music then began which never ceased during the march.
Some of the sacks, beds, bedding, &c. were strapped down on the necks and backs of the cattle, which were placed under the direction and responsibility of the youngest of the three Indians, the management of which, required the least judgment but the most activity. The horses were next ladened and disposed of. Their bells remained around their necks with their clappers stopped, only to be loosened when turned out to roam at large in the woods. `One of these, we might say, was loaded up and loaded clown with bags of provisions, household utensils, instruments of agriculture, pots, kettles, bowls, trenchers, &c., and placed in possession of the oldest and strongest Indian, to lead and take charge of. The other horse was encumbered and lumbered up chiefly with the lightest baggage, such as a bed and bedding, with as many other small articles as were demanded by the crisis. Superadded to these was Sarah, seated on the very pinnacle of the mass, and placed under her direction, while the third Indian was to be ever ready at her side as a guard, in case of need, to lead her horse and help her on and off, as circumstances and the nature of the route might require. The horses thus furnished will remind the reader of the camels, those “ship's of the desert,” when loaded up with Arabs and members of the family, tent-poles, water bags, fowls, &c. to be conveyed from one green spot to another, on the wide bosom of the African desert. The white men travelled on foot, and were next to Sarah in the line of march, the bearers of their own tools, and held a general supervision over the movements and conduct of the whole. Anything short of this last arrangement, would not have been satisfactory to our young heroine, in quieting her fears on entering the forest home of her Indian guides”.
The reader wilt observe the order of the caravan as, it took its departure from the shore of the Hudson and clear lands of the “water to move up the steep assent at New Windsor, and gain the heights above, and then wind its way to a new and forest home in the heart of Wawayanda.
First, and at the head of the moving column, was the division of cows, under the immediate direction of the young Indian. Unused to exact order, they marched forward somewhat in open and straggling ranks, like the military movements of raw reel units; while the ceaseless jingle of their bells broke in upon the before unbroken silence of the extensive woods. As this was the pioneer corps, much depended on its judicious conduct. The Indian was armed with the spade and axe, and his duty in addition was, to clear away the obstructions from the line of march, sound wet spots and mirey places, brooks, &c., so as to insure the safe passage of his division, and impart confidence to those in the rear.
Next in order “with dignified step and slow,” moved the first pack horse in charge of the strong Indian, bearing the eatables and heavy household utensils, &c. The conduct and well being of this division, was of equal interest with that of the first, for it conveyed the subsistence and family comforts of the whole, till relieved by the friendly hand of Christopher Denn, or the wild game of the forest.
Sarah, in anxious thought, communing with herself, seated in melancholy mood, high up on her stately quadruped, like some eastern Nobless on high born Elephant, moved next, while the third Indian, as her faithful footman, leaped with the velocity of an out rider, along the pathway of her march and around her person. Deeply aware of the magnitude of the trust, he divided his attention between the horse and its rider, both of which his eye apparently never left.
The white men ladened with back and hand luggage, trudged along close in upon Sarah's horse, with feelings not fully at ease, as they left the water side, the extreme verge of civilization, to commit themselves to the uncertain dangers of the wild woods, and the tender mercies of the red men who tenanted them, and from whose unthreaded labarynth there might be no escape.