Man-afraid-of-the-Water

Man-afraid-of-the-Water is a Lakota chieftain of the American plains, well known to the trapper Pearson Denby. On one occasion he greatly surprizes Denby by approaching him with a view to acquiring some cannonballs, items that Denby had no notion the Lakota ever used. It transpires that the Waterloo deserters — left behind in America when Strange returned the city of Brussels to its native soil after he had moved it to prevent its capture by the French — have traded a brass howitzer and some ammunition with Man-afraid-of-the-Water in exchange for food. The howitzer, made by the Carron Company of Falkirk, is in useable condition but has run out of projectiles: hence the chieftain's enquiry [40].