American Scenery, Vol. 2 (of 2): or, Land, lake, and river illustrations of transatlantic natureWillis, Nathaniel Parker
General
American Scenery, Vol. 2 (of 2): or, Land, lake, and river illustrations of transatlantic nature
Willis, Nathaniel Parker
United States -- Description and travel
The musical Indian name of this lovely river, spite of the canals,
rail-roads, and county towns, that have supplanted the wild forest, and
the rude wigwam in its valley, recalls irresistibly to the fancy the
associations of aboriginal life, and the swift but bloody transit from
an Indian hunting-ground to European civilization. In the county-town of
Liverpool may be found, at this day, all the transcendental marks of
national refinement—such as milliners who get the fashions from Paris,
farmers who drink champagne, lawyers who dream of the presidency, and
young ladies who read Shelley and Chateaubriand; but it is only
forty-five or fifty years ago that the Susquehanna and the head waters
of the Ohio were ranged by the warlike Shawanee; and there was scarce a
white man’s house west of Wyoming which had not been the scene, to a
greater or less extent, of the barbarities we now find it so difficult
to realize.
Among the authentic records of this region of country is a story of the
captivity and escape of two children, which seems to me one of the most
curious, and shows at the same time of what stuff the early settlers of
these borders were made.
The names of these boys were John and Henry Johnson, the former thirteen
years of age, the latter eleven. They had been rambling in the woods at
a short distance from home, and getting tired, sat down to rest upon a
log. After sitting a few minutes, two Indians approached, whom they took
for whites, till they were too close upon them to admit of escape, and
they were made prisoners. The sun set after they had followed their
captors for an hour, and the Indians kindled a fire, and sharing with
them their roasted meat and parched corn, lay down to sleep, each with
one of the boys folded in his arms.
Henry, the youngest, had abandoned himself to his grief as they
travelled on over the hills, but the elder kept a stout heart, and
encouraged him with the hope of yet eluding the vigilance of the
savages. The practice of terrifying children by threats of the red man
with his tomahawk and scalping-knife had filled the mind of the younger,
however, and he was only pacified when fatigue made the coarse food
welcome, and the heat of the fire and the accustomed hour for repose
overcame him with sleep. He lay down with the red arms of the savage
around him, and was soon lost in the deep slumbers of childhood.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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