NICK OF THE WOODS.
THE object of this novel is to paint the hardships endured and the perils encountered by the enterprising adventurers who first crossed the Allegheny Mountains and founded Kentucky, as well as to place in what the author deems a true light, the savage and bloody character of the Red Indians, which Dr. Bien conceives has been improperly blazoned by poetry and romance. Like most fictions that are written to inculcate particular theories, or to esta- blish disputed points' Nick of the Wiiods fbils in effecting the pur- poses of the author. Dr. BIRD throws no new light on the dangers of a backwood settler exposed to the excursions of the Indians : indeed, a passing sketch from many a traveller conveys a better and fuller idea of his mode of life than the Doctor's elaborate but literal descriptions. The other point is a greater failure. To sink the original provocations given to the savages—to con- trast their indiscriminate slaughters in war, and the cruel tortures to which they subject their prisoners, with the milder conduct of civilized nations towards one another—and to interest us in the fortunes of some fictitious planters cruelly attacked—is an ob- vious but a vulgar and unreasoning way of begging the ques- tion; though even this is not done to any extent. kVe hear some- thing of an Indian invasion, but we see nothing of it. Otir whole attention is directed to the " moving accidents" which befall two cousins and lovers, who having been defrauded of their uncles estateby a knavish attorney, determine to settle in the wilderness of Kentucky. Braxley, the lawyer, cannot, however, feel himself safe whilst Roland Forrester is alive, or at ease till he gets Edith Forrester to wife. He consequently, in conjunction with a tool of his, a renegade American who has adopted the Indian way of living, incites a band of savages to way- lay and capture the young settlers, with the view of destroying Roland and procuring the consent of Edith to become Mrs. Braxley : so that the greatest villains, after all, are not savages, but Americans. After the suspense of a pursuit in the woods—two or three perilous skirmishes, and two or three evasions —a capture—an escape—a recapture—and a preparation for a sacrifice of prisoners in an Indian village, with all the ceremonies of Indian torture, of which so much has been written—villany is punished and virtue rewarded. The instrument of this poeticAl Justice, and the most active agent throughout the story, is Nick of
the Woods.—ti Quaker, whose wife and children having been massacred by Indians, takes up his abode in the forest, devotes himself to the destruction of the Red race, and by only appearing in the frontier settlements as a peaceful skin-hunter, has his ex- ploits attributed to the supernatural being which gives a name to the novel. Besides this personage,—whose struggles between all of whom strike us as being caricatures, without spirit or vita- lity.
As a novel, the merits of Nick of the Woods are not of a very high kind ; its more level scenes being literal and prosaic; its descriptions of landscape heavily laboured; its incidents mostly turning upon physical horrors ; and its interest, so far as the cha- racters are concerned, being of a melodramatic kind. A consi- derable interest it however possesses, st hen we are fairly embarktd in the narrative; and for readers of the circulating library kind, who are not over critical or over learned, we cannot imagine a more agreeable change than from the unreal monks, barons, and dungeons of Europe, to the equally stimulating and more sub- stantial horrors of Indian warfare. Readers also of a much higher class, especially if not well acquainted with t he subject of back wood border frays and Indian life, will derive information, and in- terest too, from the hard, distinct pictures of Dr. Bien. The best- informed will probably acquire some clearer views upon the subject. The following view of the rationale of backwood war, insinuated in the description of a fight, is, to us at least, of this nature.
The combat that now ensued was one so different in most of its characterie. tics from all that Roland had ever before witnessed, that he watched its progress, notwithstanding the tortures of his bonds and the fever of his mind, with an interest even apart from that which he necessarily felt in it, as one whose all of happiness or misery depended upon its issue. In all conflicts in which he had been engaged, the adverse ranks were arrayed face to face, looking upoo (oat-b. other as they fought ; but here no man saw his enemy ; both parties concealing theineelves so effectually in the grass and among the rocks and shrubs, that there was nothing to indicate even their existence, save the occasional diacharge of a rifle and the wreath of white smoke culling up from it into the air. In the battles of regular soldiers, too, men fought in masses, the chief strength of either party arising from the support which individuals thus gave to one another, each deriving additional courage and confidence from the presence of his fellow,. Here, on the contrary, it seemed the first object of each individual, whether American or Indian, to beparate himself as far from his frieuds as possible, seeking his own enemies, trusting to his own resources, carrying on the war on his own foundation,—in abort, like the enthusiastic .loseyman, -.vim, without belonging to either side, was found, at the battle 4,f Mont llllll th, loupperivg away from behind a fence at whatever he fancied a foeman—t‘ fightiog on his own honk" entirely. It did not seem to Roland as if a battle fought upon such principles could result in any great injury to either party. But he forgot, or rather he was ig- norant, that the separation of the combatants, u bile effecting the best twutec- tion not merely to any one iudividual but to all his comrades, oho must have been endangered, if near him, by every bullet aimed at himself, did not imply either fear or hesitation On his part, whose object, next to that mentiolied, was to avoid the shots of the many, while seeking out and approaching • single an- tagonist %Owen he o as ever ready eingly to encounter. And thus it happened, that, while Roland deemed the antagoniats were mameuvetiog over the hill-side, dragging themselves front bu-h to hush and rock to rock, to no profitable purpose, they were actually creeping roigher and nigher to each other every moment, the aavagea crawling on wat ds with the ex- ultation of men who felt their superior atrelogalt, and the Kentuckiana advan- cing with equal alacrity, as if ignorant of, or bravely inddlereut to their in-
ferioritv.
It was not a long time, indeed, before the Virginian began to have a better opinion of the intentions of the respective parties.; for, by and by, the allots, which {yenc at first fired voy irregulatly aod st lung intervals, became more frequent, and, as it aeemed, more serious ; and au occasional whoop front an Indian, or a wild shout from a Kentuck;an, showed that the excitement tof ac- tual cohlbet was begiuning to be felt on either side. At the same tine.Ii. be- came sensible, from the direction of the tiring, that both parties had go aolually extended themselves in a line, reaching, notwithstanding the smalhoesa of their numbers, from the crest of the hill Oil the one hand to the horde' of the river on the other ; and thus perceived that the gallant Regolators, however Woe. raut of the science of war, awl borne by impetuous tempos into a contest with a more nutneroua foe, were not in the mood to lie t iken either (on the flank or rear, but were resolved, in true military style, to keep their ant ogouisis before them.
In this manner the conflict combated for ninny IniniltiS, the cond atsti approaching nearer and nearer, the excitement waxing fiercer every insiatit„ until shots were incessantly exchanged, mid, as it seemed, with occaaional effect ; for the yells, which grew louder and more frequeut on both siolca. were some- tbnes mingled with cries of pain on the one halal and shouts of triumph on the other ; during all which time nothing whatever was seen of the combat.. ants, at least by Roland, whose mental agonies were nut a little increased by his being a compelled spectator, if such he could be called, of a battle in which he was HO deeply interested, without possessing the power to mingle iu it or eta* a single blow on Isis own behalf. Ills fears of the event had been, from the first, much stronger than his hones. Aware of the greatly superior stteogth of the savages, he did not do ubt that the moment would come when he ahould see them mush in a body upon the Kentuckians, and overwhelm them with nunoloos. But that was a measure into which nothing but an unem lllll on pitch of fury could have driven the bar- bariaus for with malksmen like those ()Lipped to them, who needed but a glance of an enemy to insure his instant destruction, the first spring from the gra-ai would have beeu the signal of death to all who attempted it, leaving the survivors, no longer superior in numbers, to decide the contest with men who were, individually, in courage, atiength, and skill, at lotat their equals. Indeed, a bloody proof of the extreme folly of such a comae on the part of the Indians was Wan shown, when the Regulatura, fighting their way onwards, as if wholly regaidless of the superior numbers of the foe, bad advanced so nigh the latter as to command (which, from (occup)ing the highest ground, they were better able to do) the hiding-places ot some of their opponents. Three young warriors, yielding to their fury, ashatned pm lisps of hong thus bearded by a weaker foe, or inflamed with the hope of seeuriog a scalp of one young Kentuckian who bad crept dangerously nigh, suddenly sprang from their lairs, and, guided by the ken! the rifle whieh he had just dOseharged, rushed towards the spot, yelling with vindictive exultatiou. They were the first com- batauts Roland had yet seen actually engaged in the conflict; and he noted their appearance and act of daring with a sinking heart, as the pothole to a charge born the whole body of ludiaas upon the devoted Kentuckians. But scarcely were their brown bullies seeu to rise from the grass, before three rifles were fired from as many points in the hill-side, following each other in such rapid succession that the ear could scarce distinguish the diffarent explosions, each of them telling with fatal effect upon the rash warriors, two of whom fell dead on the spot, while the third and foremost, uttering a faint whoop of defi- ance, and making an effort to throw the hatchet he held in his hand, suddenly staggered and fell in like mariner to the earth.
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