France was
already helping her colonists. When would England help hers?
But Robert forgot all alarm in the pleasure of the voyage. It was a
good sloop, it had a stout Dutch captain, and with a favoring wind
they sped fast southward. Pride in the splendid river swelled in
Robert's soul and he and Tayoga, despite the cold, sat together on the
deck, watching the lofty shores and the distant mountains.
But Willet, anxious of mind, paced back and forth. He had seen much
at Albany that did not please him. The Indian Commissioners were
doing little to cement the alliance with the Hodenosaunee. The
Mohawks, alone of the great League, were giving aid against the
French. The others remained in their villages, keeping a strict
neutrality. That was well as far as it went, but the hunter had hoped
that all the members of the Hodenosaunee would take the field for the
English. He believed that Father Drouillard would soon be back among
the Onondagas, seeking to sway his converts to France, and he dreaded,
too, the activity and persistency of St. Luc.
But he kept his anxieties from Robert, knowing how eagerly the lad
anticipated his arrival in New York, and not blaming him at all for
it, since New York, although inferior in wealth, size and power to
Philadelphia, and in leadership to Boston, was already, in the eye of
the prophets, because of its situation, destined to become the first
city of America.
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