“And yet we sailors, who run about the world so much, say there is but one nature, whether it be in the Chinaman or a Dutchman.  For my own part, I am much of that way of thinking too; for I have generally found that all nations like gold and silver, and most men relish tobacco.”

“Then you seafaring men know little of the red-skins.  Have you ever known any of your Chinamen who could sing their death-songs, with their flesh torn with splinters and cut with knives, the fire raging around their naked bodies, and death staring them in the face?  Until you can find me a Chinaman, or a Christian man, that can do all this, you cannot find a man with a red-skin natur’, let him look ever so valiant, or know how to read all the books that were ever printed.”

“It is the savages only that play each other such hellish tricks,” said Master Cap, glancing his eyes about him uneasily at the apparently endless arches of the forest.  “No white man is ever condemned to undergo these trials.”

“Nay, therein you are again mistaken,” returned the Pathfinder, coolly selecting a delicate morsel of the venison as his bonne bouche; “for though these torments belong only to the red-skin natur’, in the way of bearing them like braves, white-skin natur’ may be, and often has been, agonized by them.”

“Happily,” said Cap, with an effort to clear his throat, “none of his Majesty’s allies will be likely to attempt such damnable cruelties on any of his Majesty’s loyal subjects.  I have not served much in the royal navy, it is true; but I have served, and that is something; and, in the way of privateering and worrying the enemy in his ships and cargoes, I’ve done my full share.  But I trust there are no French savages on this side the lake, and I think you said that Ontario is a broad sheet of water?”

“Nay, it is broad in our eyes,” returned Pathfinder, not caring to conceal the smile which lighted a face which had been burnt by exposure to a bright red; “though I mistrust that some may think it narrow; and narrow it is, if you wish it to keep off the foe.  Ontario has two ends, and the enemy that is afraid to cross it will be certain to come round it.”

“Ah! that comes of your d——­d fresh-water ponds!” growled Cap, hemming so loudly as to cause him instantly to repent the indiscretion.  “No man, now, ever heard of a pirate or a ship getting round one end of the Atlantic!”

“Mayhap the ocean has no ends?”

“That it hasn’t; nor sides, nor bottom.  The nation which is snugly moored on one of its coasts need fear nothing from the one anchored abeam, let it be ever so savage, unless it possesses the art of ship building.  No, no! the people who live on the shores of the Atlantic need fear but little for their skins or their scalps.  A man may lie down at night in those regions, in the hope of finding the hair on his head in the morning, unless he wears a wig.”