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Decolonial Pedagogy
Examining Sites of
Resistance, Resurgence,
and Renewal

Edited by
Njoki Nathani Wane
Kimberly L. Todd
Decolonial Pedagogy
Njoki Nathani Wane · Kimberly L. Todd
Editors

Decolonial Pedagogy
Examining Sites of Resistance, Resurgence,
and Renewal
Editors
Njoki Nathani Wane Kimberly L. Todd
Ontario Institute for Studies Ontario Institute for Studies
in Education in Education
University of Toronto University of Toronto
Toronto, ON, Canada Toronto, ON, Canada

ISBN 978-3-030-01538-1 ISBN 978-3-030-01539-8 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01539-8

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018956819

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
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Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
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Cover illustration: Pattern © Melisa Hasan

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 We dedicate this work to our collective ancestors those who are living,
those who have passed on, and our chthonic ancestors. We also dedicate
this book to those seeking the Awakening force, may you be guided
by the love of the Earth.
 Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge that a more extensive version of this chap-

ter: The University as a Neoliberal and Colonizing Institute; A Spatial
Case Study Analysis of the Invisible Fence between York University and
the Jane and Finch Neighbourhood in the City of Toronto by Ardavan
Eizadirad was initially published in the Journal of Critical Race Inquiry
in March 2017.
This acknowledgement is primarily an acknowledgement of what
has come before us and the supporters that have enabled us to flourish.
Thank you to our ancestors, especially our grandparents and most espe-
cially our grandmothers who have overcome extreme adversity to enable
us to flourish-their love transcends time, space, and even death. To our
parents whose love, support, and resilience are unconditional, we are for-
ever grateful to you. To our siblings who find incredible ways to demon-
strate their love and support of us. To our extended families’ uncles,
aunts, cousins who provide us with the comfort of home wherever we
go. To our friends whose laughter, generosity, and compassion sustain
us. To our families that were created on the basis of our relationships and
not blood, we offer you our gratitude. To our children and our future
generations, you are that reasons that we do this work. To our Mother
the Earth for her all-encompassing love, sustenance, and beauty, may we
honour you in all that we do.
धन्यवाद/Deu borem korm/Thank you

vii
 Contents

1 Introduction: A Meeting of Decolonial Minds 1

Njoki Nathani Wane and Kimberly L. Todd

Part I Challenging State Power

2 The University as a Neoliberal and Colonizing Institute:

A Spatial Case Study Analysis of the Invisible Fence
Between York University and the Jane and Finch
Neighbourhood in the City of Toronto 9
Ardavan Eizadirad

Part II Psychological Sciences

3 Decolonizing Knowledge in Hegemonic Psychological

Science 35
Glenn Adams, Tuğçe Kurtiş, Luis Gómez, Ludwin E. Molina
and Ignacio Dobles

ix
x    Contents

Part III Education

4 Reviving the Spirit by Making the Case for Decolonial

Curricula 57
Kimberly L. Todd and Valerie Robert

5 Training for “Global Citizenship” but Local Irrelevance:

The Case of an Upscale Nigerian Private Secondary
School 73
Chizoba Imoka

6 Using Arts-Based Learning as a Site of Critical Resistance 93

Marilyn Oladimeji

Part IV Technology

7 Awakening the Seed of Kenyan Women’s Narratives

on Food Production: A Glance at African Indigenous
Technology 113
Njoki Nathani Wane

8 Role of Latent Local Technologies and Innovations to

Catapult Development in Kenya 125
Njiruh Paul Nthakanio and Eucharia Kenya

9 Conclusion: The Way Forward 137

Njoki Nathani Wane and Kimberly L. Todd

Index 143
 Notes on Contributors

Glenn Adams is Professor of Psychology and Director of the Cultural

Psychology Research Group at the University of Kansas. His work
applies decolonial perspectives of cultural psychology to topics of collec-
tive memory, knowledge, and ignorance.
Ardavan Eizadirad is an instructor at Ryerson University in the School
of Early Childhood Studies in Faculty of Community Services. He is
also a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Curriculum, Teaching,
and Learning at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE)
at University of Toronto. His Ph.D. thesis is examining the effects of
standardized testing on subjective experiences of grade 3 students and
parents in the context of Toronto, Canada. He is an educator with the
Toronto District School Board and a community activist with the non-
profit organization Youth Association for Academics, Athletics, and
Character Education (YAAACE). His research interests include stand-
ardized testing, systems of accountability, community engagement, anti-­
oppressive practices, critical pedagogy, social justice education, resistance,
subversion, and decolonization. His recent publications include “The
University as a Neoliberal and Colonizing Institute: A Spatial Case
Study Analysis of the Invisible Fence between York University and
the Jane and Finch Neighbourhood in the City of Toronto” (March
2017), “Comparative Analysis of Educational Systems of Accountability
and Quality of Education in Ontario, Canada and Chile: Standardized
Testing and its Role in Perpetuation of Educational Inequity” (August

xi
xii    Notes on Contributors

2016), Is It “Bad” Kids or “Bad” Places? Where Is All the Violence

Originating From? Youth Violence in the City of Toronto, (April 2016),
and “International Experience in a Non-Western Country, Teacher
Habitus, and Level of Inclusion in the Classroom” (March 2016).
He is currently working on a manuscript with Dr. John Portelli about
Subversion & Standardized Testing (forthcoming 2018).
Chizoba Imoka is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto’s
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. Her doctoral research
explores student experiences in Nigerian secondary schools and seeks to
make policy/practice recommendations for decolonial education reform.
Within the community, Chizoba is an acclaimed advocate for public edu-
cation reform in Africa, social justice and transformative youth engage-
ment. She is the Founder/CEO of Unveiling Africa, a non-profit that
provides a platform for Nigerian youth to participate in community
mobilization and political leadership.
Eucharia Kenya is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Planning,
Administration and Finance, at the University of Embu. She is also a
consultant on Biotechnology, Biosafety, and Biosecurity issues with
international experience and expertise. Previously she taught at the
Department of Biochemistry and Biotechnology, Kenyatta University,
Nairobi, for over 10 years. During this period, she supervised over 30
postgraduate students and published several peer-reviewed papers. She
has attracted substantial grants that have benefited many students in
the greater East African Region and fostered collaborative projects and
partnerships that have contributed in strengthening capacity in different
aspects of biochemistry and biotechnology.
She is a very active player in the agricultural biotechnology sector
in Kenya and served as a member of the steering committee under the
Ministry of Agriculture, that developed the “Agricultural Biotechnology
Awareness Strategy for Kenya”. She was deeply involved in the discus-
sions that culminated in the enactment of the Kenya Biosafety Act
(2009) and has also participated in regional efforts at harmonizing these
laws.
As an educator, she has participated in many outreach activities to key
biotech stakeholders including policymakers and technocrats, parliamen-
tarians, scientists, teachers, farmers and the media. These activities have
covered areas spanning General Biotechnology, Risk Communication
(Safety of GM Technology), Media Relations (for Scientists), the Art of
 Notes on Contributors    xiii

Reporting Science (for Journalists), Policy Formulations, and Regulatory

Landscaping and Practice in Africa, with reference to adoption of GM
Technology/Biosafety and Biosecurity.
Prof. Kenya is a founding member of the Programming Committee of
the Open Forum for Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa, a flagship pro-
ject of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation, headquartered
in Nairobi, Kenya.
On the international scene, she has been very active in the activities
of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) and the Organization for
the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and is a member of the
Chemical Weapons Convention Coalition. Her thrust in these organiza-
tions is to articulate the need for increased capacity strengthening and
enactment of laws that will enable African countries gain from interna-
tional efforts by the global community in making everywhere safe for
human existence.
Tuğçe Kurtiş is a research affiliate of the Cultural Psychology Research
Group at the University of Kansas. She completed her Ph.D. in Social
Psychology and a graduate certificate in African Studies at the University
of Kansas. Drawing upon perspectives in cultural, feminist, and critical
psychologies and interdisciplinary discussions in decolonial studies and
transnational feminisms, her research focuses on sociocultural construc-
tions of subjectivity and relationality, which she examines through joint
processes of voice and silence in interpersonal and collective experience.
Her main objective as a social psychologist is to use psychological theory,
pedagogy, and practice as resources for global social justice.
Ludwin E. Molina is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the
University of Kansas. Broadly speaking, his research examines subgroup
relations within diverse communities. This work spans topics of national
identity, immigration, and respect.
Njiruh Paul Nthakanio holds a Ph.D. in Genetics and Plant Breeding
(Zhejiang University, China). Formerly, I taught Molecular Biology, for
a total period of over 20 years now, at Technical University of Kenya
and currently at University of Embu (Kenya). At University of Embu,
where I am Registrar Planning, Administration and Finance, I double
up between administration and teaching. After a number of years prac-
tising science a spirit of reconnaissance seem to creep into me and I start
questioning why the greater disparity in science and technology between
xiv    Notes on Contributors

Africa and the rest of the world. In pursuit of this, the question of how
science and technology became latent in Kenya and in the rest Africa in
face of colonialism keep surfacing up. This book chapter explores the
numerous opportunities that can lead to financial and wealth gains if
indigenous science and technologies can be catalyzed from latency.
Marilyn Oladimeji, ECE, ExAT, MSW, MScs, Ph.D. As an Expressive
Arts Therapist, I believe that engaging in various forms of interventions
using art-making can sometimes be described as “conscious dreaming”,
a type of dreaming from which you can gain a feeling of being in con-
trol of your body, mind, and soul. Membership: Ontario Expressive Arts
Therapy Association (OEATA) and the National Guild of Hypnotists
(NGH).
Luis Gómez Ordóñez is a Professor of Psychology and Director of
the School of Psychology at the Universidad Nacional Costa Rica, he
has also been a Researcher at The Latin American Studies Institute,
School of Sociology and Education in the same university. He is a mem-
ber of the Decolonial Studies Group and the Collective of Liberation
Psychology.
Ignacio Dobles Oropeza is Professor of Psychology at the University of
Costa Rica, where he has been Director of the School of Psychology and
the Institute of Psychological Research. His current work is centred in
social, political and community psychology.
Valerie Robert, M.Ed. is a teacher by profession and an aspiring film-
maker. She has a worked for various education groups and not for prof-
its, and endeavors to move the process of decolonization forward both
within herself and in her work.
Kimberly L. Todd is a Ph.D. candidate in Social Justice Education
at the University of Toronto (OISE). Her research interests include
education, decolonization, Indigenous epistemologies, dreaming, and
spiritual knowledges. She is a Canadian teacher with experience teaching
in South Korea, the United Arab Emirates and at a First Nations school
in Canada. Kimberly is a member in good standing with the Ontario
College of Teachers. She is also a curricular resource designer and has
created educational resources for organizations like Amazon Watch and
the David Suzuki Foundation. She is passionate about decolonization
and education.
 Notes on Contributors    xv

Njoki Nathani Wane Professor Njoki Wane is a recognized scholar

in the areas of Black feminisms in Canada and Africa, African indig-
enous knowledges, African women and spirituality. One of her most
recent publications is “Indigenous African Knowledge Production:
Food Processing Practices Among Kenyan Rural Women”. She
has co-authored an Anti-racist training manual, Equity in Practice:
Transformational Training Resource, with Larissa Cairncross, Ruptures:
Anti-Colonial & Anti-Racist Feminist Theorizing with Jennifer Jagire
and Zahra Murad, A Handbook on African Traditional Healing
Approaches & Research Practices with Erica Neeganagwedin. She has also
co-edited Spirituality, Education & Society: An Integrated Approach with
Energy Manyimo & Eric Ritskes and The Politics of Cultural Knowledge
with Arlo Kempf and Marlon Simmons. Prof. Wane headed the Office
of Teaching Support in 2009–2012. She has been nominated TVO
Best Lecturer, and is the recipient of the Harry Jerome Professional
Excellence Award (2008) and of the African Women Achievement Award
(2007). She is also a recipient of the prestigious David E. Hunt Award
for Excellence in Graduate Education for 2016, University of Toronto
and the President of Toronto Teaching Award, 2017. She has recently
become the Chair of the Department of Social Justice Education at the
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, at the University of Toronto.
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: A Meeting
of Decolonial Minds

Njoki Nathani Wane and Kimberly L. Todd

Abstract This chapter examines how decolonial scholars have engaged

and shaped decolonial discourse and posits that this text extends these
discourses by delving into the potentiality for decolonial pedagogy
to reformulate and reconfigure colonial structures. It maps the chap-
ters within this text and engages various sites of colonial oppression
by cutting across fields, geographies and institutions in order to trace
decolonial resistance. This chapter highlights the topics covered in this
anthology which include state power, the psychological sciences, edu-
cation and Indigenous technologies and provides a layout of the strate-
gies, critiques and research on how to transform these sites of colonial
oppression.

Keywords Decolonial pedagogy · Resistance · Colonial oppression ·

Transformation

N. N. Wane · K. L. Todd (*)

Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Toronto,
ON, Canada
e-mail: k.todd@mail.utoronto.ca
N. N. Wane
e-mail: njoki.wane@utoronto.ca

© The Author(s) 2018 1

N. N. Wane and K. L. Todd (eds.), Decolonial Pedagogy,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01539-8_1
2 N. N. WANE AND K. L. TODD

Decolonization, according to Joseph’s blog (2017), “is …a long-term

process involving the bureaucratic, cultural, linguistic and psychological
divesting of colonial power” (p. 1). Joseph explains that “decoloniza-
tion is about shifting the way Indigenous Peoples view themselves and
the way non-Indigenous people view Indigenous Peoples” (p. 1). Our
book interrogates the notion of decolonizing pedagogy and in particular
educational institutions. The aim of the book is to capture the fluidity of
the decolonizing discourse. In the last decade, decolonization as a prac-
tice, theory or debate has been written about and researched so much so
that, if we are not careful, we might lose our agency and the very essence
of this important scholarship. In 1986, Ngugi wa Thiong’o released his
book: Decolonising the Mind. In this book Wa Thiong’o called us to look
into how western education was a colonizing tool and how language,
culture and religion were central to colonizing mission. Wa Thiong’o
building on the works of Fanon, Cheikh Anta Diop was calling on the
colonized people to decolonize their minds. In addition, others who
also echoed Wa Thiong’o were Chinua Achebe, Albert Memmi, Wole
Soyinka, Ashis Nandy, Aimé Césaire, Linda Tuhiwai Smith, just to name
a few. All these authors provided excellent analyses of the destruction of
cultural traditions, education and any form of social fabric through the
colonial machinery. Many of them went a step further and offered sug-
gestion on how to decolonize from the colonial master. Some spoke
about the importance of relearning Indigenous languages (Thiong’o
1986), while Smith (1999) talked of research as a dirty word and how
the colonizers had justified their colonial agenda through research. Albert
Memmi (1965) paid attention to the relationship between the colonizer
and the colonized. Many questioned how colonial systems disrupted
all forms of institutions, both public and private. In this anthology, our
focus is on decolonizing the pedagogy. Our debate in this anthology on
decolonial pedagogy in many ways, mirrors the journey that many scho­
lars, educators, activists and researchers have taken, in trying to make
sense of this colonial machinery that has an identity of its own.
Decolonizing of any form is a long and central component of colo-
nized subjects. The chapters in this anthology provide an excellent
analysis of how people have resisted despite the disruption. Decolonial
Pedagogy: Examining Sites of Resistance, Resurgence, and Renewal there-
fore takes up the question of how to decolonize systemic structures,
institutions and educational systems that have emerged out of colonial
logics. This book delves into areas of psychology, education, spatial
 1 INTRODUCTION: A MEETING OF DECOLONIAL MINDS 3

analysis and Indigenous technologies in an effort to critically engage sites

of ongoing colonial oppression and delve into the potential for deco-
lonial ruptures and transformation. This anthology demonstrates the
potential inherent in decolonial work to cut across fields of study, engage
Indigenous knowledges and transform sites of oppression. It highlights
the need to heal colonial wounds and revitalize knowledges that fall out-
side of the colonial paradigm. This book utilizes provocative and critical
research that takes up issues of race, the shortfalls of empirical sciences,
colonial education models and the need for a resurgence in Indigenous
knowledges to usher in a new public sphere; a public sphere brought
about by decolonization. This book is a testament of hope that places
decolonization at the heart of our human community.
The book consists of nine chapters wherein various authors engage
the reader with the significance of decolonial pedagogy to usher in
transformative change in various colonial sites. Additionally, this book
subverts western hegemony by affirming the value of Indigenous tech-
nologies and the need for new education models that are inherently
decolonial. This introduction provides the overview of the book, while
the conclusion charts the way forward in regards to decolonizing the
public sphere.
Ardavan Eizadirad in “The University as a Neoliberal and Colonizing
Institute: A Spatial Case Study Analysis of the Invisible Fence between
York University and the Jane and Finch Neighbourhood in the City
of Toronto” (Chapter 2) uses a spatial analysis to trace the growth,
expansion and development of both the Jane and Finch area and York
University. The work is situated in anti-racist and anti-colonial frame-
work by unveiling the racial, colonial and class logics that demarcate the
two spaces. The Jane and Finch neighbourhood characterized by pov-
erty, racism and violence is contrasted with York University, an institu-
tion characterized by privilege, whiteness and mobility. Eizadirad unfolds
the process by which the university as an instrument of the State partakes
in white privilege, racism and neo-colonialism at the expense of the Jane
and Finch neighbourhood through implementation of invisible borders,
segregation and a systemic racial hierarchy.
Glenn Adams et al. in “Decolonizing Knowledge in Hegemonic and
Psychological Science” (Chapter 3) delves into the need for a shedding
of colonial epistemic violence as a starting point for true liberation.
They chart how the western hegemony inherent in the psychological
sciences is failing a majority of the population. In an effort to address this
4 N. N. WANE AND K. L. TODD

issue head on, Glenn Adams et al. highlight their findings on the most
effective approaches to begin decolonizing the psychological sciences.
They call to light the strengths, limitations and possibilities inherent in
each approach. This chapter provides much promise for the way in which
the psychological sciences can become decolonial in practical and viable
ways.
Kimberly L. Todd and Valerie Robert in “Reviving the Spirit by
Making the Case for Decolonial Curricula” (Chapter 4) explore the need
for alternative decolonial curricula to disrupt the hegemonic and colo-
nial narratives of state curricula. It chronicles the challenges of Todd and
Robert as they move through teacher’s colleges and classrooms butting
up against colonial structures and systems that are inherently violent for
both teachers and students alike. Todd and Robert demonstrate how the
Cartesian separations are weaved within the school day and how these
separations perpetuate deeply embedded disconnections from mind,
body, soul and nature. The chapter posits that alternative decolonial cur-
ricula are needed to lay the groundwork for a decolonial revolution in
schooling and act as a catalyst for this process. The purpose of decolonial
curricula is to provide decolonial tools for teachers to aid in the rupturing
of epistemic colonial barriers that are inherent in provincial curricula (in
a Canadian context) and elsewhere. As such, decolonial curricula should
be designed to work in conjunction with the provincial/state curriculum
in the average classroom and to be the building block for teachers’ les-
son planning. Decolonial curricula are posited as an act of resistance and
revival in the wake of colonial structures. Decolonial pedagogies need to
flourish within schools to begin the process of casting off the hegemony
of western knowledges.
Chizoba Imoka in “Training for ‘Global Citizenship’ but Local
Irrelevance: The Case of An Upscale Nigerian Private Secondary School”
(Chapter 5) uses a case study to unveil western hegemony within the sec-
ondary school system in Nigeria. This chapter demonstrates how the cur-
riculum and pedagogy flows from a western Eurocentric canon and with
this comes a loss of Nigerian knowledges, languages and values. Imoka
unveils the violence that this schooling enacts on the students and the
need for resistance against such hegemonies. At the heart of this chapter
is a need for decolonial pedagogy and transformation that honours the
lived experiences, histories and ancestries of the student body. In order
to further this analysis, Imoka provides a resource in the form of a lesson
 1 INTRODUCTION: A MEETING OF DECOLONIAL MINDS 5

plan for teachers and students to engage the questions embedded in this
chapter in a critical and transformative manner.
Marilyn Oladimeji in “Using Arts-Based Learning as a Site of Critical
Resistance” (Chapter 6) takes up art as a medium for transformation
both personal and collective. Oladimeji posits that art, because of its abil-
ity to generate new ways of perceiving and engaging with the world, acts
as a mode of resistance against colonial oppression and western hegem-
ony. Indigenous knowledges are deeply generative, creative, innovative
and attuned to the moment and art provides a medium for tapping into
these ways of being. Oladimeji advocates for arts-based learning for the
well-being of students and as decolonial pedagogy that ruptures the
colonial oppressive norms of education.
Njoki Nathani Wane in “Awakening the Seed of Kenyan Women’s
Narratives on Food Production: A Glance at African Indigenous
Technology” (Chapter 7) charts her own journey back to her village
where she studied food production and preservation technologies under
the guidance of female elders. Through this process, Wane learned the
value of Indigenous technology that had been passed down ancestrally
from one generation to the next. Through this decolonial pedagogy,
Wane shares with the reader the necessity for a revival of Indigenous
technologies that fosters the flourishing of the mind, body and soul of
the community. This chapter also chronicles the change that colonialism,
globalization and environmental degradation has had on both the land
and food preservation. It centres the voices of the Elders whose wisdom
points the reader in a direction towards decolonial revival and resur-
gence. Ultimately, this chapter is a call to action to reaffirm relationships
to ancestry, land, food and ourselves despite the continual abuses of
colonialism.
Njiruh Paul Nthakanio and Eucharia Kenya in the “Role of Latent
Local Technologies and Innovation to Catapult Development in Kenya”
(Chapter 8) discuss at great length the value inherent in herbs, medi-
cines and food for nourishment, healing, health and economic well-
being. These Indigenous technologies have been subjugated or co-opted
by colonial powers. Nthakanio and Kenya highlight various Indigenous
technologies whether they be for the purpose of cultivation, healing or
food preservation that has been abandoned or over looked in lieu of
western technologies. This chapter foregrounds the need for revitali-
zation in both the local epistemic valuing of these knowledges and the
6 N. N. WANE AND K. L. TODD

utilization of them for the emotional, physical and economic well-being

of Kenyan people.
In our concluding chapter entitled “Conclusion: The Way Forward”
(Chapter 9), we chart a course towards a decolonial future. We recap the
poignant contributions of our authors and delve into some of the themes
they have engaged in a new way. We chronicle the destructive nature of
colonialism on the level of the soul, the ongoing harm it produces on the
mind and body and the decolonial healing process that can emerge at the
level of spirit. We posit that decolonial transformation provides a bridge
for communal and collective transformation advocating for a re-emergence
of spiritual technologies, courage and community. Our conclusion is not
an ending but a beginning. May this book provide insights, strategies and
fortitude to help you continue on your own decolonial journey.

References
Joseph, B. (2017, March 29). A Brief Definition of Decolonization and
Indigenization. Retrieved April 28, 2018, from https://www.ictinc.ca/
blog/a-brief-definition-of-decolonization-and-indigenization.
Memmi, A. (1965). The Colonizer and the Colonized. Boston: Beacon Press.
Smith, L. T. (1999). Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples.
Dunedin: Otago University Press.
Thiong’o, N. W. (1986). Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in
African Literature. London: J. Currey; Portsmouth: Heinemann.
 PART I

Challenging State Power

 CHAPTER 2

The University as a Neoliberal

and Colonizing Institute: A Spatial Case
Study Analysis of the Invisible Fence Between
York University and the Jane and Finch
Neighbourhood in the City of Toronto

Ardavan Eizadirad

Abstract Jane and Finch is notoriously known in the City of Toronto

as a high profile “Priority Neighbourhood” characterized by pov-
erty, crime, and violence yet it is situated in close proximity to York
University, a place of higher learning characterized by modernism, order,

A more extensive version of this chapter was initially published in the Journal
of Critical Race Inquiry in March 2017. A preliminary draft of this chapter
was presented at the OISE 15th Annual Dean’s Graduate Student Research
Conference on March 7, 2015, in Toronto, Canada. Thanks to Dr. Sherene
Razack for introducing me to the concept of spatial analysis.

A. Eizadirad (*)
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto,
Toronto, ON, Canada
e-mail: ardavan.eizadirad@mail.utoronto.ca

© The Author(s) 2018 9

N. N. Wane and K. L. Todd (eds.), Decolonial Pedagogy,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-01539-8_2
10 A. EIZADIRAD

multiculturalism, and innovation. Using a spatial analysis, the first half of

the chapter traces the social, cultural, and historical development of Jane
and Finch and York University, contrasting the rapid development and
expansion of York University in relation to the slow growth and deterio-
rating living conditions of Jane and Finch. The second half of the chap-
ter explores the racialization of physical and social differences between
York University and Jane and Finch, particularly how interlocking sys-
tems of domination produce, maintain, and (re)produce an invisible
fence that constitutes York University as a civilized space and Jane and
Finch as a spectacle of violence and terror. Overall, this chapter argues
that the university as an extension of the State participates in the neolib-
eral and colonizing project of constructing York University as a safe place
of higher learning at the expense of social marginalization, stigmatiza-
tion, and exclusion to the Jane and Finch community and Othering of its
residents. By racialization of Jane and Finch and Othering of immigrants
and visible minorities, York University masks its own violence and pro-
tects and privileges Whiteness.

Keywords Spatial analysis · York University · Jane and Finch · White

privilege · Racialization · Othering · Colonization · Neoliberalism

Introduction to Spatial Analysis: Interlocking Systems

of Domination and Oppression

Spatial analysis can serve as a medium to examine how interlocking sys-

tems of domination and oppression operate dynamically and simultane-
ously, co-constituting one another through each other (Razack 2002a).
It is through such vantage point that the myth of space as naturally
evolving is debunked (Lefebvre 1991) and one can transition to view
elite spaces such as the university as a spatial product socially, culturally,
and politically produced within a web of unequal power relations bene-
fiting colonizers at the expense of oppression and marginalization to the
colonized. Spatial analysis as a tool functions to denaturalize and disrupt
what often is accepted as “the way things have always been” through
contextualization and historicizing, referred to by Razack (2002a) as
“unmapping”. Razack (2002a) points out that, “unmapping is intended
to undermine the idea of white settler innocence -the notion that
 2 THE UNIVERSITY AS A NEOLIBERAL AND COLONIZING INSTITUTE … 11

European settlers merely settled and developed the land- and to uncover
the ideologies and practices of conquest and domination” (p. 5).
The objective of this spatial case study analysis is to unmap (Razack
2002a), historicize, and contextualize the role of York University as an
apparatus of the White settler society participating in practices of con-
quest and domination which (re)produce racial hierarchies and a socially
stratified Canadian society. The first part of the chapter traces the
social, cultural, and historical development of Jane and Finch and York
University, contrasting the slow and deteriorating living conditions of
Jane and Finch in relation to the rapid development and expansion of
York University. The second half of the chapter explores the racialization
of physical and social differences between York University and Jane and
Finch with an emphasis on how interlocking systems of domination pro-
duce, maintain, and (re)produce the invisible fence and how this benefits
specific social groups at the expense of marginalization to others.

Brief History of Jane and Finch

Jane and Finch is a neighbourhood located in the former city of North
York in northwestern Toronto, Ontario, Canada centred around the
intersection of two arterial roads: Jane Street and Finch Avenue. The
area is roughly bounded by Highway 400 to the west, Driftwood
Avenue to the east, Grandravine Drive to the south, and Shoreham
Drive to the north (Leon 2010; Narain 2012). Starting in 2005, the
City of Toronto identified thirteen “Priority Neighbourhoods” to receive
extra attention for the purpose of neighbourhood improvement in var-
ious capacities. In March 2014, the City of Toronto expanded the pro-
gramme to include thirty-one identified neighbourhoods and renamed
the programme from “Priority Neighbourhoods” to “Neighbourhood
Improvement Areas” (City of Toronto 2016). According to the City of
Toronto (2016) website, the thirty-one neighbourhoods were selected
through the Toronto Strong Neighbourhoods Strategy 2020 which
identified areas falling below the Neighbourhood Equity Score and
hence requiring special attention. Since inception of these neighbour-
hood improvement initiatives, Jane and Finch has always been one of
the neighbourhoods identified as requiring special attention whether as
a “Priority Neighbourhood” or a “Neighbourhood Improvement Area”
(City of Toronto 2016). According to the City of Toronto Jane-Finch:
12 A. EIZADIRAD

Priority Area Profile (2008), the neighbourhood has “an approximate

population of 80,150 living within an area span of twenty-one kilo-
metre squared with an average population density of 3,817 persons per
kilometre squared”. The neighbourhood is characterized by unemploy-
ment, single-parent families, and high percentage of visible minorities
which leads to Jane and Finch being a constant target of negative media
depictions. Within dominant narratives in the media, the social problems
of the neighbourhood are often blamed on its residents without much
attention given to the systematic and structural conditions which histor-
ically have influenced the neighbourhood’s trajectory of development
leading up to its current conditions.
The major print document that is available and accessible which
covers the history of Jane and Finch is called From Longhouse to
Highrise: Pioneering in Our Corner of North York published in 1986
by Downsview Weston Action Community with assistance from York
University’s Community Relations Department. It traces the histor-
ical roots of Jane and Finch to roughly around 1400 where the land
belonged to Indigenous Peoples living in longhouses that “were up to
120 feet long and 30 feet wide” (p. 5). In describing how the settlers
obtained the land the document states,

Eventually, our Indian pioneers were forced to leave their village as the
land could no longer support them. The soil had slowly lost its fertility,
the forests had thinned making firewood and building timber scarce and
the forest wildlife disappeared. The Indians moved north and west to new
areas of plenty. (p. 5)

This simplistic description does not outline how the Indigenous Peoples
were displaced and their lands stolen, with violence used as a tool for
conquest and domination. Rather, it paints the picture that Indigenous
Peoples left because “the land could no longer support them” and then
the European settlers arrived shortly after. These narratives mask the vio-
lence that was enacted on Indigenous Peoples and their communities.
Ironically, after obtaining the land European settlers primarily used the
land for farming up until the end of World War Two.
The next major change to the land occurred after World War
Two. Throughout the nineteenth century, the Jane and Finch
area underwent incremental growth through investments “in
 2 THE UNIVERSITY AS A NEOLIBERAL AND COLONIZING INSTITUTE … 13

building of schools, churches, and the addition of a railway in 1853”

(Richardson 2008, p. 2). As World War Two ended, Canada as a nation-
in-the-making seized the opportunity to build a unique identity for
itself by implementing less restrictive immigration policies and accepting
immigrants from non-European countries. As a means of being able to
provide living spaces for newly arrived immigrants entering the country,
Canada began to invest in building affordable housing in the suburbs. As
a result, in 1954 the federal and provincial government expropriated 600
acres of farmland in the Jane and Finch area for the intention of develop-
ing 3000 low-cost homes (Lovell 2011).
Jane and Finch underwent massive development by the Ontario
Housing Commission in the 1960s to keep up with rapid rates of new-
comers entering Canada (Narain 2012). Jane and Finch represented an
ideal choice for many new immigrants due to low rent costs and rela-
tively close proximity to the downtown core of the city. At the time,
immigrants that were moving into the Jane and Finch area were pre-
dominantly from West Indies, Asia, Africa, South America, and India
(Richardson, p. 3). High-rise apartments and townhouses were built at
a rapid rate. This linear style of hollow urban planning without much
thought to the internal infrastructure of the neighbourhood lead to
the population of Jane and Finch expanding “from 1,301 in 1961 to
33,030 in 1971” which included establishment of twenty-one high-
rise apartment buildings in the neighbourhood (Downsview Weston
Action Community 1986; Rigakos et al. 2004). Jane and Finch contin-
ued its exponential growth in the 1970s and 1980s. During this period
the majority of its residents were working-class immigrants and visible
minorities (Narain 2012).
Jane and Finch continued its trend of becoming a popular place of
residence for immigrants and racialized minorities. As this trend con-
tinued, the neighbourhood began gaining “a reputation for ethnic con-
flict, crime, and violence which continues to haunt it today” (Richardson
2008, p. 76). In “Canada’s Toughest Neighbourhood”: Surveillance, Myth,
and Orientalism, Richardson (2008) argues that the continuous nega-
tive representation of Jane and Finch produced an image of the neigh-
bourhood as an “uncivilized” space infested with social problems (p. 77).
What needs to be questioned is how is it that from all the neighbour-
hoods in the City of Toronto, Jane and Finch became the city’s most
notorious neighbourhood associated with violence, crime, and gangs?
14 A. EIZADIRAD

David Hulchanski’s (2007) report The Three Cities Within Toronto

provides the means to contextualize the development of Jane and Finch
in comparison with other neighbourhoods in the City of Toronto. The
study provides a comprehensive examination of income polarization
among Toronto’s neighbourhoods from 1970 to 2005 taking into con-
sideration neighbourhood demographics. Findings indicate emergence
of three distinct cities within Toronto based on income change. “City
#1” makes up 20% of the city and it is generally found in the down-
town core of the city in close proximity to the city’s subway lines. The
neighbourhoods under “City #1” are identified as predominantly high-
income areas where the average individual income increased by 20% or
more relative to the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area (CMA) aver-
age in 1970. “City #2” makes up 40% of the city and is characterized
by middle-income neighbourhoods. Individual incomes in “City #2”
remained the same having undergone an increase or decrease of less
than 20%. “City #3” makes up 40% of the city and includes the Jane and
Finch area. Individual incomes in “City #3” have undergone a decrease
of 20% or more. Other than income differences, there are other major
differences between “City #1” and “City #3” particularly in terms of the
number of immigrants and visible minorities living in the areas. 82% of
“City #1” is White compared to 34% of residents in “City #3”. The per-
centage of foreign-born people in “City #1” declined from 35 to 28%
between 1971 and 2006, whereas in “City #3” the number of immi-
grants increased drastically from 31% of the population in 1971 to 61% in
2006 (Hulchanski 2007, p. 11). These statistical trends support and con-
firm that predominantly beginning in the 1970s the majority of residents
of Jane and Finch became immigrants and visible minorities. Currently
70.6% of the Jane and Finch population consists of visible minorities
(City of Toronto 2008).
Hulchanski’s data demonstrates drastic differences in long-term
neighbourhood trends within Toronto, but more importantly it decon-
structs the fallacy that neighbourhoods simply evolve “naturally” and
by chance. Long-term trends from the findings indicate that invest-
ments and resources are distributed inequitably to different neighbour-
hoods in the City of Toronto; neighbourhoods composed of majority
White residents are privileged at the expense of systemic neglecting of
neighbourhoods composed of majority working-class immigrants and
visible minorities. For Jane and Finch, the lack of investment in the
infrastructure of the neighbourhood along with lack of accessibility
 2 THE UNIVERSITY AS A NEOLIBERAL AND COLONIZING INSTITUTE … 15

to social programmes, employment, and resources resulted in “the

most ripe of conditions for concentrated urban poverty to develop”
(Rigakos et al. 2004, p. 17). Instead of the City of Toronto acknowledg-
ing that urban planning of Jane and Finch was a recipe for failure, the
City of Toronto along with media narratives began placing blame of the
social problems plaguing the neighbourhood on the residents of the area
targeting them for social, cultural, and racial biases (Zaami 2012).

Brief History of York University

The building of York University occurred during a period of rapid expan-
sion for Canadian post-secondary institutions coinciding with the matur-
ing of the “baby boom” generation after World War Two (Unterman
and McPhail 2008). Canada’s population was increasing at a rapid rate
after World War Two due to the “baby boom” generation maturing into
young adults and more flexible immigration policies. A large percentage
of the Canadian population was young and as a means of addressing their
needs, the provincial government of Ontario invested in building a new
university in Toronto to increase accessibility to post-secondary educa-
tion. As a result, York was incorporated in March 1959 “with the big-
gest task ahead being the actual development of the University” (York
University 2012b).
The province anticipated that the new university would establish itself
slowly due to lack of credibility. Therefore, one of the conditions out-
lined by the legislation which approved the building of York University
was the requirement for the university to be affiliated with the University
of Toronto in its early stages “for a period of not less than four years
and not more than eight years” (Ross 1992, p. 66). This was intended
to assist York University in transitioning to establish itself with credibil-
ity and adequate scholastic standards. York University began its operation
in the fall of 1960 as an affiliated college of the University of Toronto.
Classes took place on University of Toronto campus downtown. In the
fall of 1961, classes were moved to York’s Glendon College Campus
located near Bayview Avenue and Lawrence Avenue East (Unterman
and McPhail 2008, p. 9). At this time, York Board of Governors began
searching for an ideal location to build a new large campus in order to
establish York as an independent university that would accommodate
greater number of students.
16 A. EIZADIRAD

At the time of its incorporation York Board of Governor’s had the

vision of building “a large, urban, multi-Faculty campus that would
eventually accommodate 7,000 to 10,000 students” (York University
2012b). The Keele site, located near Jane and Finch, was selected as an
ideal location because it was expected that “the movement of population
in Toronto would be towards the northwest and it would be accessible
to future main traffic arteries”. York pursued in securing such location
and as a result in 1962 the Province of Ontario gave York University
474 acres of previously expropriated land near the Jane and Finch area
to start the initial construction and development of the Keele Campus
(Unterman and McPhail, p. 9). The planning and construction took
approximately three years to be completed. In 1965, York University
ended its affiliation with University of Toronto and declared independ-
ence by opening up its Keele Campus. The location of the Keele Campus
proved to be a good choice as enrolment of students increased at a rapid
rate over the following years and the area became more accessible by cars
and public transportation. What York University did not expect was the
neighbourhood adjacent to it becoming known as the most notorious
neighbourhood in the City of Toronto associated with poverty, crime,
and violence.

The Invisible Fence Between York University

and Jane and Finch

The following sections, through a spatial analysis, explore the physical

and socio-spatial differences that construct and (re)produce the “invis-
ible fence” between what constitutes as York University and Jane and
Finch. York University and Jane and Finch have had unique and signif-
icantly diverse trajectories in terms of their development yet they nearly
occupy the same space. Jane and Finch has become known as a “Priority
Neighbourhood” in the City of Toronto associated with poverty, crime,
and violence whereas York University has expanded and established
itself as the “third largest university in the country with a community of
55,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff ” (York University 2012b).
As the examples of the racialized differences discussed will demonstrate,
the “invisible fence” manifests itself in a dynamic and intentional man-
ner involving inequitable power relations between the university and the
neighbourhood. It is significant to emphasize that the invisible fence is
constructed intentionally and not accidental in nature.
 2 THE UNIVERSITY AS A NEOLIBERAL AND COLONIZING INSTITUTE … 17

Socio-Spatial Characteristics of the Invisible Fence

Settler colonialism constructs the dichotomy between the “civilized”
and “uncivilized” with reference to how the land is occupied and used.
The notion that Indigenous Peoples did not properly use and cultivate
the land and hence had no title to it forms the basis of the “doctrine of
discovery” which provides the foundational framework for legal claims
to the land (Smith 2005, p. 56). As Wolfe (2006) points out in Settler
Colonialism and the Elimination of the Native, the ideological justifica-
tion for the dispossession of the land from the Indigenous Peoples was
that settlers “would use the land better” (p. 389). Within this para-
digm, settler colonialism becomes synonymous with modernity whereas
Indigenous Peoples are seen as “pre-modern”.
Narratives explaining how the land changed ownership is predom-
inantly told from the perspective of White settlers in which certain
fragments of history are purposefully forgotten, erased, and silenced
particularly the extensive violence enacted on Indigenous Peoples as a
means of displacing them and dispossessing their land. York University,
as an extension of the State, directly participates in reproducing White
settler narratives through knowledge production. A clear example is
the involvement of York University in publishing the document From
Longhouse to Highrise: Pioneering in Our Corner of North York which
depicts Indigenous Peoples as “savages” who migrated to another loca-
tion due to infertility of the land. The production of such narratives by
York University serves two purposes: masks the dark history of a White
settler Canadian society and masks the dark history of the university in
its role as a colonizing institution. As a result, the university space is per-
ceived as an ahistorical space distant from the atrocities and violence of
the past.
Similar to colonial discourse which relies on binaries, there is a dualis-
tic difference in terms of the physical appearance and architectural design
of buildings between Jane and Finch and York University. Jane and
Finch is primarily characterized by government housing which includes
semi-detached houses and high-rise buildings with some having up to
“427 units and reaching as high as 33 floors” (James 2012, p. 31). Most
of the buildings in Jane and Finch are now more than forty years old
and are in deteriorating conditions. In contrast, York University’s archi-
tectural design and representation is aligned with a Eurocentric appear-
ance outlined in the 1963 York University Master Plan which imposes
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
woman’s wig on, and a little rouge, and was dressed in the latest
fashion with a great hoop—for he meant to represent a lady, not a
peasant woman—anybody would have taken him for a pretty young
lady. The hoop and the sack and all the fallals a lady would wear
were of real service to him, as he could wear his uniform under
them, and so, if he should be found out and arrested, he would be
entitled to be treated as a prisoner of war. If he had been caught in
the French lines without his uniform he would have been strung up in
short order as a spy, according to the articles of war. I kept my
uniform on too, but that was a simple matter, as I was only disguised
by another suit of man’s clothing put on over it.
“My lord had something else under his hoop besides his uniform—a
good rapier, with a Toledo blade; and his lace neck-handkerchief was
fastened with a jewelled dagger that was more than a toy. He was to
be Madame Geoffroy in search of her husband, who was supposed
to be in the garrison, and I was to be a great, stupid, faithful Alsatian
servant, and my name was to be Jacques; and my name is Peter, sir.
I had no arms, only a great stick; but there was a knob in that stick,
and when I pulled out that knob I had a sword.
“We used to practise of a night in the tent. My lord had merriment in
him then, and officers always like a lark; and it would have made you
laugh, Mr. Washington, to have seen my lord, all dressed up as a
woman, pretending to cry, and holding his handkerchief to his face
while he rehearsed the story he was making up to the two young
officers. It was a yarn all about the supposed Madame Geoffroy’s
travels in search of her husband, and her delight when she heard he
was one of the officers of the Bouchain garrison; and, of course, she
would be told by somebody that there was no such officer in the
garrison, and then she was to give a screech and fall over, and I was
to catch her and beg her to control herself. Oh, it was as good as
play-acting! Often, when I have thought of that adventure, and have
remembered how my lord looked then and how he looks now—so
serious and grave, and as if he never played a prank in his life—I
could hardly persuade myself it was the same man. Well, Mr.
Washington, after we had got it all straight, one dark August night we
ran the sentries—that is, we slipped past them in the dark. They
thought we were deserters, although why anybody should desert
from our camp, where we had both victuals and drink in plenty, to go
to Bouchain, where they had neither, nobody could make out.
However, we heard the shots cracking behind us as we managed to
pick our way through the morass, and truly, sir, I think we were in
more danger of our lives while crossing that morass in the dark
between the English and French lines than at any other time. It was
terrible work, but we managed to get to a solid piece of ground,
covered with underbrush, where our outfit was concealed. Luckily we
had to conceal our clothes, for we were covered with black mud, and
we had a time scraping it off our hands and faces. At last, though,
after half an hour’s hard work there in the swamp, we were dressed.
We then had to steal about a mile off, through the undergrowth, to
the right of the French lines. This would have been easy enough for
us except for my lord’s toggery, but the little rents and stains we got
upon us gave the more color to the story we had to tell of a long
day’s travel and many mishaps on the way.
“After a while, sir, we got out on the open highway, and then we took
breath and made for the French sentries. I tied a white handkerchief
on to my long stick, and we marched along until we got to the first
outpost; and when the sentry levelled his piece and asked us ‘Who
goes there?’ my lord advanced and said, in a woman’s voice, ‘A
distressed lady.’ The night was dark, but the sentry could see it was
a lady, and then my lord said, ‘I am Madame Geoffrey, the wife of a
French officer, and I desire you to bring the officer of the guard to me
at once.’ That sounded straight enough, so the soldier took a little
whistle from his belt and whistled, and pretty quickly a smart young
lieutenant stepped up.
“The supposed Madame Geoffrey had then sunk upon the ground,
pretending to be almost fainting with fatigue, and after this, Mr.
Washington, I will make bold to call my lord Madame Geoffroy during
the whole of this adventure; for nobody thought he was anything but
a woman, and sometimes I had to rub my eyes and ask if I wasn’t
really named Jacques, and Madame Geoffroy and her big hoop and
her lost husband weren’t real.
“The Frenchmen are monstrous polite, as you know, sir, and when
the lieutenant saw a lady sighing and moaning on the ground he took
off his hat and bowed low, and asked what he could do for her.
“‘Let me see the commandant of the garrison for only one moment!’
cried Madame Geoffroy, clasping her hands. ‘My husband—my poor,
brave husband! Oh, sir, have some pity on a distracted woman, who
has travelled nearly seven hundred leagues in search of her
husband.’
“‘Was your husband an officer in Marshal Villars’s army, madame,’
asked the lieutenant, bowing again.
“‘He was—and is, I hope,’ said madame. ‘He was one of the King’s
Musketeers, but was taken prisoner at Oudenarde, and on being
exchanged he joined Montbrasin’s regiment because it was on the
frontier; and since that day, a year ago, I have been unable to find
any trace of him. I have strong hopes he is living, for I have no proof
that he is dead; and knowing that Colonel Montbrasin is the
commandant of the garrison of Bouchain, I have made my way here,
with incredible difficulty, even through the English lines.’ Now this
was really a very clever speech, for the King’s Musketeers was a
crack regiment, being the Grand Monarque’s own body-guard, and
no man was admitted into it unless he was of the best blood of
France. So the lieutenant thought Madame Geoffroy was a great
lady.
“‘Madame,’ said he, ‘it is not in my power to promise you an interview
with the commandant, but I will conduct you with pleasure to my
superior officer, who commands the main entrance to the town.’
“At that madame jumped up so sprightly and started to walk so fast
that I was afraid the lieutenant would suspect her. But that is just like
the French, Mr. Washington. One minute they are in the dolly dumps,
so that you would think they could not live, and the next they are
capering about, and laughing and singing as if they never had the
dolly dumps in their lives. Off we set for the main gate. We walked
along the intrenchments, and I kept my eyes open, and in spite of
the half-darkness I saw a good many things that they would rather
we hadn’t seen. Their works were in a bad way, and our siege-guns
had done their duty.
“Arrived at the gate-house the young lieutenant asked for the officer
in command—Captain Saussier. So Captain Saussier came out, and
madame went through all her story again. The captain ogled her, and
it was all I could do to keep my countenance when I saw that the
captain and the lieutenant were trying to cut one another out. They
made no bones at all of taking her to see the commandant,
particularly as she said she did not wish to stay, except until daylight
the next morning, for in a besieged town they don’t want any non-
combatants to eat up the provender. But although they were willing
enough for her to go in, they refused to let me. She made no
objection to this, which surprised me; but in a moment she fell into
one of those fits we had rehearsed for the commandant’s benefit,
when he should tell her, as we knew he would, that he had never
seen or heard of her husband. I came forward then with smelling-
salts, and presently she revived. That scared the officers a little, for
the bravest officer in the world would rather be out of the way when a
woman begins to cry and kick and scream. As soon as they led her
towards the gate she had another fit, and as good a fit as I ever saw
in my life, sir. Then I came running, of course, with the smelling-salts.
The captain evidently did not want her on his hands entirely as long
as she was in that condition, so he said perhaps—ahem!—it might
be better to take her servant along.
“‘Oh, my good, faithful Jacques!’ cried she. ‘It would be a great
comfort if I could have him with me in this trying time!’ So they
passed me in the gates along with her.
“She never stopped chattering for a moment while she was walking
through the streets with the captain, telling a long rigmarole about
her travels; but she used her eyes as well as I used mine. The town
was horribly knocked to pieces—houses falling down, the streets
encumbered with rubbish, and several breaches made in the walls.
They had managed to repair the breaches after a fashion, for the
French understand fortifications better than we do; but there was no
doubt, from what we saw in that walk at nine o’clock at night, that the
town and fortifications had suffered terribly. And there were no
women or children to be seen, which showed that they had sent
them all away, for some will remain in a besieged town as long as
there is anything to feed them on.
“When we reached the citadel we noticed there were not near
enough cannon to defend it; so we knew that they had been forced
to take the guns to place on the ramparts. At last, after going through
many long passages and winding stairs, we were ushered into the
commandant’s presence. He was a tall, soldierly looking man, and
he received madame very politely. The captain told the story of her
tremendous efforts to get there and her trouble, madame all the time
sighing and weeping. But here came in a frightful thing, sir. There
had been a Captain Geoffroy, an officer in Marshal Villars’s army,
and I felt myself turning pale when the commandant offered to let
madame remain in the town twenty-four hours until he could find out
something about this Geoffroy. But madame’s wit saved her.
“‘Pray,’ said she, clasping her hands, ‘what was this M. Geoffroy
like?’
“‘Tall,’ said the commandant, ‘with a swarthy skin and black hair.’
“‘Ah,’ cried she, muffling her face in her handkerchief, ‘it could not
have been my husband. He was short, and had light hair, and had
lost a part of his right ear in a duel; it disfigured him very much.’
“‘Then, madame,’ answered the commandant, ‘I can give you no
further information, for that is the only Geoffroy in the army of whom I
know anything, and from your description he cannot be your
husband. I will make inquiries among my officers, but I can give you
but little hope.’
“Madame sighed and groaned some more, and then said she would
be ready to depart at daylight in the morning, to begin her search
over again. The commandant offered her a room in the citadel,
warning her that it would be necessary for her to get out before
daybreak, as the English began their cannonade as soon as it was
light enough to see the French lines. Madame agreed tearfully to
this, and the commandant offered her some supper, smiling when he
told her it was not exactly the kind of fare he was used to offering
ladies. But she declined—we had not the heart to eat up anything
from those poor devils. So she was shown to a room, and I lay down
at the door and pretended to sleep; but you may depend upon it, sir,
that neither one of us slept a wink. Towards daylight the captain of
the guard came to waken us, and told us it was time to leave. The
commandant was up to bid madame adieu, as they call it in the
French lingo; and after thanking him for his politeness madame was
escorted to the gate, I following her, and thence as far as the picket-
line. And here, after the officer had left us, for the first time we
aroused suspicion. We were walking pretty fast, and something in
the supposed lady’s gait made the sentry suspect us. There was
another soldier, not a sentry, with him, and this fellow called after us
to stop. We were near the entrance to the bog then, and we knew
the way across it, particularly as there was now daylight enough to
see, so the only notice we took of him was to walk a little faster. The
soldier followed us clear into the underbrush, when my lord—for so I
will call him now—deliberately dropped his hoop and petticoat,
revealing a pair of legs that evidently belonged to the British army,
and a rapier, while from the waist up he wore a woman’s sack, and
had a hood on his head. The apparition dazed the soldier for a
moment, when my lord made at him with the rapier, and he turned
and ran, giving the alarm, however. We took to our heels and gained
the causeway, when the French fired a regular fusillade after us,
although not a shot struck; and our own people, seeing us running
towards them, thought we were escaped prisoners, and we got
within our own lines without trouble. My lord had some valuable
information to give the duke, and the adventure got out in the army
and made a hero of him. The French kept monstrous quiet about it;
you see, sir, we had taken the commandant himself in. My lord
repaid his politeness, though, by sending him a box of wine, which
we knew he needed for his sick; but the commandant was the most
chagrined man in the French army. They made a sortie soon after
that, but it did them no good, and within a week they surrendered.
The duke granted them all the honors of war, and the garrison
marched out with drums beating and colors flying. They had made a
gallant defence, and had not surrendered until they were starving.
That was the end of my serving with the great Duke of Marlborough,
for that was his last campaign. And soon after my lord left the army.
And I’ll be leaving his service by the toe of his boot if I don’t go to
him now; so good-night, sir, and excuse me if I have kept you out of
bed too long.”
With this Lance disappeared.
In a few minutes George was in bed, and for the first time a sudden
shock of homesickness came to him. His mother would not come to
him that night and kiss his forehead, as she always did. It almost
drove away the story of the siege of Bouchain; but in a little while he
had lapsed into a sleep, in which dreams came of Bouchain, and the
earl dressed up as Madame Geoffroy, and his mother sitting by the
fire smiling, and Betty playing on the harpsichord, and then deep
oblivion and the soundest of sleep.
 CHAPTER VI
The two days’ journey that followed were very much like the first day
—an early start, two hours’ rest in the middle of the day, and the
night spent at a road-side tavern. On the third day they left
civilization behind them, and their midday rest was spent in the
woods. They were then upon a lower spur of the Blue Ridge
Mountains. The road for the first two days had been fairly good, but
on the third day the four roans had all they could do to haul the
heavy coach up and down the rough highway. They stood to their
work gallantly, though, and Lord Fairfax remarked that the coach
could go twenty miles farther up the mountain, where he had a
hunting-lodge—a sort of outpost for Greenway Court, and where the
coach was stored. Glorious weather had followed them. The air was
keener and colder than in the low country, and Lance produced a
huge furred mantle, in which he wrapped Lord Fairfax, who sat and
read unconcernedly while the coach rolled and jerked and bumped
along. George was glad to make half his day’s travel on horseback,
and the exercise, as a warmer-up, was so much better than the
earl’s fur mantle that he felt sometimes like suggesting a gallop to
Lord Fairfax. But he had the wit to keep his suggestions to himself,
knowing that older men can do their own thinking much better than it
can be done for them by fifteen-year-old boys. George had enjoyed
every moment of the trip so far. His attacks of homesickness were
few, and he got over them by the philosophical reflection that he
would have been cruelly disappointed if his mother had not allowed
him to come. He began a letter to his mother, writing a little every
day, so that if he had a chance to visit the low country it would be all
ready to send at a moment’s notice. He was very happy. He had in
prospect a new and delightful experience in travel and association.
When that was over he had the cheerful hospitality and honest
gayety of his Christmas at Mount Vernon to look forward to with his
brother and his sister-in-law, whom he dearly loved, and dear little
Betty; and after that a return home, where he fitted naturally and
easily into the position of his mother’s best helper and counsellor.
The singular attraction between the man of the world and the
unsophisticated young provincial gentleman grew each day. George
had never before met any one who had Lord Fairfax’s store of
experience, as a soldier, a courtier, a man of affairs, and a member
of a great literary circle. Nothing was lost on the boy, and the earl
was charmed and interested to find that a chance word dropped here
and there would remain in George’s memory, who would recall it at a
suitable time to ask some intelligent question about it. Lord Fairfax
sometimes smiled at himself when he realized how much of his time
and thought and conversation were spent upon this boy, but he also
realized that an intelligent and receptive young mind is in itself one of
the most interesting things in the world, and when combined with the
noble personality and high breeding of Madam Washington’s son it
was irresistible. For the first day or two he always spoke to George
as “Mr. Washington,” and neither one could tell the exact occasion
when he dropped it for the more familiar “George.” But it was done,
and it put them upon a footing of affection at once. George continued
to say “my lord,” as that was the proper mode of address, but little by
little he revealed his heart to his new friend, and Lord Fairfax read
him as an open book. This was not at first, however, for George
modestly conceived himself to be a person of no consequence
whatever, and was much more eager to hear the earl speak of his
adventures than to tell all the ideas and protests and ambitions he
cherished himself.
On the evening of the fourth day they came to a log structure at the
foot of the mountains, where the coach was to be left. It was in a
cleared space on an open plateau, and above them towered the
great peaks of the Blue Ridge, which they must cross on horseback.
The night was bright and beautiful, a great vivid moon sailing
majestically in the heavens. There was in the clearing one large
cabin, with two beds in it and a large press, besides a table and
some chairs. In a smaller cabin two or three men lived the year
round, while built on to that was a substantial coach-house, where
the great chariot was stored, except when the earl went upon his
lowland journeys in state. When the cavalcade stopped in the
clearing Lord Fairfax alighted and walked into the large cabin,
followed by George. A fire roared upon the broad, rude hearth, and
in ten minutes Lance had unlocked the press, had taken from it
some bedlinen and blankets, and had made up the beds and laid the
table. Supper had been prepared in advance, and, as Lance was an
excellent cook, it was not to be despised—in particular a great
saddle of venison, which had been hanging up for a week in
anticipation of the earl’s arrival. George could hardly have told what
part of the day’s journey he always enjoyed most, but these suppers,
with the earl’s entertaining conversation, and his own healthy young
appetite, and the delicious sense of well-being when he drew up to
the fire afterwards, to listen and ask questions, were perfectly
delightful to him.
When they were seated at the table and about half through supper,
Lord Fairfax asked, smiling:
“How do you like the uncivilized wilderness, George?”
“But this is not the uncivilized wilderness yet,” answered George,
smiling too. “We have a table and chairs, and knives and forks and
plates, and beds and blankets, and silver candlesticks.”
“Still, it is the wilderness, and from now on we must depend upon
ourselves for company. The true meaning of the wilderness is,
absence from the haunts of men. We shall be entirely alone at
Greenway, except for a few negroes and Indians. You will probably
not see a white face, except mine and Lance’s, until you leave me.”
“It will be quite enough, sir,” replied George. “I would rather be with a
few people that I like than with a great crowd that I don’t like.”
“I felt the same in my youth. Afterwards there were circumstances in
my life which inclined me to solitude. I came to Virginia in search of
it, and I found it; and I also found peace. Once a year I go to the low
country—to Belvoir, my cousin William Fairfax’s; to your brother’s at
Mount Vernon; sometimes to see Colonel Byrd at Westover: but I
always return to my own fastness gladly. I feel more cheerful now
than at any time since we started. My old friends—my books—are
waiting for me in my library; I can only take a dozen with me when I
go away. My doves and pigeons, my dogs and horses, will all be the
happier for my return home. My servants will be glad to have me
back—poor souls, they have but a dull time of it all the year round;
and I myself, having lived this life so long, find that it suits me. I shall
have your company for several weeks; then I shall want you again
next year.”
“Next year, sir, I shall be sixteen, and perhaps I shall not be my own
master. I may be in his majesty’s service. But if I can come to you
again, you may be sure I will.”
When supper was over the earl drew his chair up to the fire, and, still
wrapped in his fur mantle—for the bitter wind blew through the
cracks and crannies of the cabin—sat in a reverie with his deep eyes
fixed on the blaze. George had meant that night to ask him
something about the siege of Bouchain, but he saw that the earl was
deep in thought, and so said nothing. He began to wonder what his
mother and Betty were doing at that time. It was after supper at Ferry
Farm, too. His mother was knitting by the table in the parlor, with two
candles burning, and Betty was practising at the harpsichord. In his
mother’s bedroom—“the chamber,” as it was called in Virginia—a fire
was burning, and around the hearth were gathered the household
servants picking the seed from the cotton which, when warmed by
the fire, came out easily. This they did while waiting until they were
dismissed at nine o’clock. What was Billy doing? and Rattler? While
thinking these thoughts George dropped asleep, and slept soundly
until Lance waked him raking down the ashes and preparing for the
night.
Next morning George wakened early, as he supposed, seeing how
dark it was; but the sound of the rain upon the roof proved that it was
not so early, after all. He glanced through one of the two small
windows of the cabin and saw the water coming down in torrents. A
regular mountain storm was upon them. George sighed as he
realized this. It meant weather-bound for several days, as the roads
across the mountains would be likely to be impassable after such a
storm. And so it proved. For four days there was only an occasional
let up in the downpour. Luckily, no snow fell. And Lord Fairfax
observed his young guest narrowly in these days of being cooped up
in a cabin, and found him less impatient than might have been
expected. George, seeing the elaborate preparations that Lance
always made for the earl’s comfort, imagined that he would ill
support the inconveniences of their enforced delay; but it proved
exactly the contrary. Lord Fairfax was not only patient but gay under
such annoyances as a leak in the roof and their rations being
reduced to corn-bread and smoked venison.
“It reminds me of our old days in the Low Countries,” he said to
Lance the fourth night they spent at the cabin.
“Yes, my lord; but, saving your honor’s presence, we would have
thought this a palace in those days. I don’t think I ever was dry all
over, and warm all over, and had as much as I could eat from the
time I went to the Low Countries until after we had taken Bouchain,
sir.”
“Lance has told me about that adventure, sir,” said George, slyly,
hoping to hear something more from Lord Fairfax about it.
“Pshaw!” cried the earl, smiling, “Lance is in his dotage, and can talk
of nothing but what happened thirty or forty years ago. Our
expedition was a mere prank. I found out nothing, and risked not
only my life but this poor fellow’s without warrant.”
“The duke, sir,” said Lance, very respectfully, “was of another mind.
And, sir, I have never thought of Madame Geoffroy, and her fits and
her fainting and her furbelows, these thirty-five years without
laughing.”
At which George went off into such convulsions of laughter that Lord
Fairfax knew Lance had told him the whole story.
After four days of stormy weather it became clear and cold. They
were only twenty miles from Greenway Court, but the earl sent a
man ahead to find out if the streams were fordable, and whether it
were yet worth while to start. The man came back the next day about
sunset, saying it would be possible for them to get to Greenway
Court the next day.
Although George had stood the confinement in the cabin stoically, he
was delighted to be on the move again, and both he and the earl
relished their last supper there the more for knowing it would be the
last. All the arrangements were made for an early start on horseback
next morning, and at nine o’clock Lord Fairfax and George were
about turning in when they heard a timid knock at the door.
Lance, with a candle in his hand, opened the door, and at first saw
nothing at all; but as his eyes became accustomed to the darkness
he saw a negro boy and a dog.
Lance was so surprised that he did not at first speak, but the boy
piped up very promptly: “Is Marse George Washington here, suh?”
George, on hearing his name called in that voice, jumped from his
chair as if he had been shot, and the next moment was standing face
to face with Billy, while Rattler sprang at him with wild barks of
delight. Billy’s greeting was brief and to the point.
“Heah I is, Marse George, wid Rattler.”
 “‘IS MARSE GEORGE WASHINGTON HERE, SUH?’”
“Where on earth did you come from?” asked George, breathlessly,
dragging the boy into the cabin. As the light of the fire and the
candles fell upon him he looked as if he might have come three
hundred miles instead of less than a hundred and fifty, he was so
thin, so hollow-eyed, and gaunt. His shoes were quite gone except
the uppers, and he was in rags and tatters; yet nothing could dim the
joy shining in his beady black eyes, while his mouth came open as if
it were on hinges. Lord Fairfax, turning in his chair, was struck by the
look of rapturous delight on poor Billy’s face. The boy, still grinning,
answered:
“F’um Fredericksburg, I tooken de horse mos’ ter de ferry, and den I
tu’n him loose, kase he had sense ’nough fer ter git ter de boat by
hisse’f. So arter I seen him mos’ up ter de boat, me an’ Rattler, we all
lights out arter de kerriage fo’ Black Sam an’ Gumbo have time fer
ter hunt fer me, an’ we foller de track clean f’um Fredericksburg ter
dis heah place.” Billy told this as if it were the commonest thing in the
world for a boy and a dog to follow a coach more than a hundred
miles from home. George was so astonished he could only stare at
Billy and gasp out:
“How did you manage to keep the track?”
“Dunno, suh,” replied Billy, calmly. “Rattler, he know de way better ’n
me. When de rains come an’ I los’ de wheel tracks, I say ter dat ar’
dog, ‘Lookee heah, dog, we is follerin’ Marse George’—he know dat
jes as well as a human; an’ I say, ‘You got ter fin’ dat trail an’ dem
tracks,’ an’ dat dog he know what I was talkin’ ’bout, an’ he wag he
tail, an’ den he lay he nose to de groun’, an’ heah we is.”
The earl had laid down his book and was listening intently to Billy’s
story. “And what did you live on—what did you have to eat on the
way—let me see—nearly eight days?”
“We didn’t have nuttin much,” Billy admitted. “De mornin’ we lef’
home I tooken a big hoe-cake an’ put it in my sh’ut when warn’
nobody lookin’. De fus’ day I eat some, an’ gin some ter de dog.
Arter dat I foun’ chinquapins an’ ches’nuts an’ some tu’nips ’long de
road-side, an’ I could eat dem, but de dog couldn’, so I kep’ dat hoe-
cake fur Rattler, an’ give him de las’ piece yistiddy.”
“Billy,” asked George, with tears in his eyes, “were you very hungry?”
For the first time a distressed look came into the boy’s face. He was
at his journey’s end, he was with Marse George, he had nothing
more on earth to wish for; but the recollection of the hunger of those
eight days—the cold, the weariness, the agonies of terror that
sometimes attacked him overcame him.
“Yes, suh, I was hongry,” he said, with a sob, “dat’s Gord’s truf; an’ ef
it hadn’ been fur dis heah dog you neber would ha’ seed Billy no mo’.
But dat dog, he go ’long snuffin’, an’ he were hongry too, I speck,
dough he had some hoe-cake ’twell yistiddy; an’ if de dog coul’ hol’
out, dis nigger could.”
“I’ll never, never forget it, Billy, as long as I live,” said George, half
crying.
Then Lord Fairfax spoke. “But how did you escape from being
stopped on the road for a runaway?”
“Dunno, suh,” responded Billy, using his favorite formula. “We didn’
meet many white folks on de road, an’ when we see ’em comin’ we
hide in de bushes. I ain’ never spoke ter a human sence we lef’
Fredericksburg. In de daytime we hide somewh’yar by de road an’
sleep, an’ we trabbel mos’ all night. ’Twas de full o’ de moon, an’ I
see dem tracks jes same as ’twas in daytime. Den, arter I los’ ’em,
dis heah dog, he jes keep de road hisse’f—an’ here I is.”
“Lance,” cried George, suddenly, “please get something to eat for
him—anything—everything you have!”
Billy’s eyes glistened as, in a moment, Lance whipped out of the
press some cold meat and bread, and he attacked it ravenously.
Meanwhile, George fed the dog, which was evidently the least
starved of the two. When Billy had eaten up everything that could be
produced for him, he quietly curled himself up near the fire, and in
half a minute he was sleeping the sleep of the just.
“What are you going to do with him?” asked Lord Fairfax of George.
“Keep him with me if you will allow me, sir.”
“But what will your mother say? He seems to be a strong boy—his
journey proves that—and he no doubt has his work at Ferry Farm.”
George smiled at the recollection of Billy’s “work.”
“I don’t think, my lord, that Billy is of the slightest use at Ferry Farm
unless I am there. My mother, who believes in everybody’s being
industrious, has done her best to make him work. So have his father
and mother, Uncle Jasper and Aunt Sukey. But except for waiting on
me, and taking care of my horse, Billy will absolutely do nothing. He
is not surly about it—he is always grinning and laughing and singing
—but—I can’t explain it exactly—he will work his fingers to the bone
for me, but he won’t work for anybody else.”
“I should not think Billy a very useful member of society,” remarked
Lord Fairfax.
George said not a word, but he did not like aspersions of any kind on
Billy. Seeing this, Lord Fairfax said, in his usual kind tone:
“If it gives you pleasure, you must, of course, keep him with you—
and indeed there is nothing else to be done that I can see; and as
you say he is no good to your mother when you are not at home,
perhaps he is better off here. He seems a faithful little soul, and I am
not surprised that you are touched at his devotion.”
George’s face assumed an entirely different expression, but he
merely said, “Thank you, sir,” and in a few minutes after, throwing a
bear-robe over Billy, George went to bed himself, with Rattler curled
up by him.
Next morning they took the road soon after sunrise. Billy, who had
enough of walking for some time to come, was mounted on one of
the pack-horses. Two saddle-horses had been brought down from
Greenway for the earl and his young guest, and together they led the
procession along the rough mountain road. The scenery was wildly
beautiful. Occasionally they wound along mighty precipices, where
the horses could scarcely pick their way. Again they forded mountain
streams that could only be breasted by the most tremendous
exertions. They made their way through a great cleft in the
mountains about midday, and began to descend towards the valleys.
The distance was but twenty miles, yet so difficult was the road that
it was late in the short autumn afternoon before Lord Fairfax,
pointing to a collection of roofs that lay directly below them in a
sheltered part of the valley, said to George, “There is Greenway
Court.”
By sunset they were riding up the rough road that led to the house.
It was a large, low building, with stables and offices projecting on
each side. The foundation was of stone, rudely but strongly
cemented. Half-way up the story and a half which constituted the
building the stone ceased, and logs, neatly and even artistically
mortised together, were carried to the roof. The effect was not
unpleasing, especially as many of the original forest trees had been
left, and the building blended well with its surroundings. Broad and
shallow stone steps led up to the main entrance, and two great oak
doors studded with nails gave entrance to it. George noticed that all
of the windows were provided with stout iron-bound shutters, with
holes for musketry in them. The door was also pierced for defence,
and a very slight examination showed that, if well garrisoned, the
building could be converted into a tolerably strong block-house. The
earl, as if reading the thoughts in George’s mind, remarked:
“We have to be provided here for attacks from the Indians, incited by
the French. The French have determined to extend their
encroachments eastward and southward by a chain of forts, and I
make no doubt that they contemplate a line that will extend from
Canada to Louisiana. They use the Indians as secret though
powerful allies, and by encouraging them to harry and murder the
whites in this wild part of the colony of Virginia, they think that it will
be abandoned, and that they can advance their outposts this far.
Greenway Court has withstood one siege, and can withstand
another. There is a spring directly under the house, and, having
some knowledge of mechanics, I have concealed the source, which
is at a distance from the house, and we get the spring-water by
merely going down into the cellar. Then I keep constantly on hand, in
this same cellar, stores of provisions and ammunition, so we are well
able to defend ourselves, even against burning—for the Indians have
found out the use of the torch against white men’s dwellings.
However, I hope we shall have no bouts with them while you are with
us.”
George said nothing, but he would have been more or less than a
boy if he had not longed in his heart for a bout with the savages, of
which he had heard much but seen little.
 CHAPTER VII
Inside, Greenway Court was not devoid of comfort, and even of
luxury. The main hall was open to the roof, and, like all the rooms in
the house, the rafters were left bare, and the walls rough cast in a
sort of brown plaster not unpleasing to the eye. In every room there
was a huge fireplace with great iron fire-dogs. In some of the guest-
chambers were the vast curtained beds of the period, but in Lord
Fairfax’s own room was a small iron bedstead that he had used in
his campaigns when a young man. His library communicated with his
bedroom, and was by far the most luxurious room in the whole
quaint building. It was lined with books from the door to the low
ceiling—George had never seen so many books in all his life before.
There were also a few portraits and one or two busts. Over the
mantel two swords were crossed—one a cavalry sword, and the
other a delicate rapier such as officers in the foot regiments used at
that day. George’s eyes fell upon them as soon as he and the earl
entered the room.
“The sword was the one I had the honor to use in my campaigns
under Marlborough, and the rapier”—here Lord Fairfax smiled a little
—“I had concealed about me when I entered Bouchain in disguise.”
After supper was over Lance showed George into a room with one of
the gigantic four-posters in it. The floor was covered with bear-skins,
and Billy was instructed to roll himself up in them for a bed, which he
did with much satisfaction, with Rattler on top of him, as soon as
George was in bed, which was not long in being accomplished.
Next morning George was up and around early, looking about the
place. He had never seen the mountains before, and was deeply
impressed by their grandeur, but in his heart he preferred blue water.
The scenery was even more striking in the blaze of the morning light
than he had supposed. On every side, beyond the valley, giant
peaks rose into the blue air, covered with vegetation to the very top.
He understood then the profusion of bear-skins in the house, and
thought what fine sport might be had in tracking big game through
the deep gorges and dark forests of the region. Lance came up to
him as he stood on the broad stone steps drinking in the wild beauty
of the scene, and inhaling the keen, sharp air, so unlike the softness
of the lowland atmosphere.
“There is great sport hereabouts, Lance,” cried George.
“Yes, sir; bears and Injuns, mostly—and rattlesnakes in season. Did
you ever eat bear meat, Mr. Washington?”
“No,” answered George; “but I have been told it is fine.”
“I’ve got some, sir, for supper to-night. The bears have been feeding
on persimmons and chinquapins and walnuts, and that always
makes the meat of a good flavor.”
“And how about the Indians?” asked George, smiling.
“Injuns and rattlesnakes have their seasons together,” answered
Lance, with a grim smile in reply. “They and their French friends
generally keep pretty close this time of year. I don’t know which I
would rather receive—the French and Injuns coming as friends or
enemies. Sometimes half a dozen of ’em turn up, usually in the
summer—the French always pretending to be traders or something
of that sort—and they bring two or three Injun bucks with them, to
carry their luggage, they say; but whoever saw an Injun carrying
anything but a firelock—if he can get one? They always profess to
belong to a peaceable tribe; but that’s all in my eye, sir. They hang
about for a day or two, asking for fresh meat or vegetables, and
making out that they don’t know how to get across the mountains,
and all the time the French are drawing maps in their note-books and
the Injuns making maps in their heads; for, Mr. Washington, your
Injun is full of horse-sense about some things. He can’t look ahead,
or plan, or wait—all the Injuns in North America couldn’t have taken
Bouchain—but for killing people, quick and sure, I don’t know of any
soldiers quite so good as Injuns. The French, sir, have a regular plan
in all their expeditions here. The last party that turned up got me to
talking about the way we had repulsed the redskins—for we have