Original - North Central Michigan College Library

10FIRST DAYS OF CAPTIVITYrTT^HE game of baggatiway,as from thedescription above will have been perceived,is necessarily attended with muchviolence and noise. In the ardor of contest theball, as has been suggested, if it cannot bethrown to the goal desired, is struck in anydirection by which it can be diverted from thatdesigned by the adversary. At such a moment,therefore, nothing could be less liable to excitepremature alarm than that the ball should betossed over the pickets of the fort, nor thathaving fallen there, it should be followed onthe instant by all engaged in the game, as wellthe one party as the other, all eager, all struggling,all shouting, all in the unrestrained pursuitof a rude athletic exercise. Nothing couldbe less fitted to excite premature alarmnothing, therefore, could be more happilydevised, under the circumstances, than a stratagemlike this; and this was in fact thestratagem which the Indians had employed,by which they had obtained possession of thefort, and by which they had been enabled toslaughter and subdue its garrison and such ofits other inhabitants as they pleased. To bestill more certain of success they had prevailed86