Besides these visits, the lovers found ready means for exchanging their
expressions of affection through the faithful Huron, Oonomoo, who made
stated journeys from Captain Prescott's mansion to his post. On these
occasions, he went loaded with missives from one party to another,
carrying back as many as he brought. He was a great favorite with the
whites, who appreciated his chivalrous faithfulness and fidelity, and
loaded him with many expressions of their esteem. He had the
reputation of being the fleetest runner, the most successful scout and
best hunter in the West. Volumes would be required to record all the
exploits told of him--of the marvelous number of scalps which hung in
his lodge, and of the many hair-breadth escapes he had had. It was
said he had a wife and child hid somewhere in the recesses of the
forest, to whom he made stated visits, and whom his deadly enemies, the
Shawnees, had sought in vain for years. He was now about thirty-five
years of age, and had been known as a scout and friend of the whites
for full a dozen years.
Somewhat less than two years after the first meeting of Lieutenant
Canfield with the daughter of Captain Prescott, the wife and eldest
daughter of the latter made a journey of pleasure to a neighboring
settlement. Mary would have accompanied them, had she not received an
intimation from Oonomoo that her lover proposed to make her a visit
about that time.
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