A glance
at Hist, and the recollection of what might follow, checked any
transient wish for revenge. The reader has been told that Chingachgook
could scarcely be said to know how to manage the oars of the Ark at
all, however expert he might be in the use of the paddle. Perhaps
there is no manual labor at which men are so bungling and awkward, as
in their first attempts to pull oar, even the experienced mariner,
or boat man, breaking down in his efforts to figure with the
celebrated rullock of the gondolier. In short it is, temporarily,
an impracticable thing for a new beginner to succeed with a single
oar, but in this case it was necessary to handle two at the same
time, and those of great size. Sweeps, or large oars, however,
are sooner rendered of use by the raw hand than lighter implements,
and this was the reason that the Delaware had succeeded in moving the
Ark as well as he did in a first trial. That trial, notwithstanding,
sufficed to produce distrust, and he was fully aware of the critical
situation in which Hist and himself were now placed, should the
Hurons take to the canoe that was still lying beneath the trap, and
come against them. At the moment he thought of putting Hist into
the canoe in his own possession, and of taking to the eastern
mountain in the hope of reaching the Delaware villages by direct
flight.
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