Anecdotes of the American Indians, illustrating their eccentricities of character
History
Anecdotes of the American Indians, illustrating their eccentricities of character
Indians of North America -- Anecdotes
It seems incredible, that they sometimes rescued their prisoners from
these tortures, adopted them, and treated them with the utmost lenity
and even kindness. At other times, ingenuity was exhausted to invent
tortures, and every renewed endurance of the victim seemed to stimulate
their vengeance to new discoveries of cruelty. Butler was one of
these ill-fated subjects. No way satisfied with what they had done,
they marched him from village to village, to give all a spectacle of
his sufferings. He ran the gauntlet thirteen times. He made various
attempts to escape; and in one instance would have effected it, had he
not been arrested by some savages who were accidentally returning to
the village from which he was escaping. It was finally determined to
burn him at the lower Sandusky, but an apparent accident changed his
destiny.
In passing to the stake, the procession went by the cabin of Simon
Girty, who had just returned from an unsuccessful expedition to the
frontiers of Pennsylvania. The wretch burned with disappointment and
revenge; and hearing that there was a white man going to the torture,
determined to wreak his vengeance on him. He found the unfortunate
Butler, threw him to the ground, and began to beat him. Butler, who
instantly recognized in Girty a former companion of his youth, made
himself known to him. His savage heart relented. He raised him up,
and promised to use his influence to save him. Girty had a council
called, and he moved the savages to give Butler up to him. He took
the unfortunate man home, fed, and clothed him, and Butler began to
recruit from his wounds and torture. But the relenting of the savages
in his favour was only momentary. After five days, they repented of
their relaxation in his favour, reclaimed him, and marched him to
Lower Sandusky to be burned, according to their original purpose. By
a surprising coincidence, he there met the Indian agent from Detroit,
who from motives of humanity, exerted his influence with the savages
for his release, and took him with him to Detroit. Here he was paroled
by the governor. He escaped, and by a march of thirty days through the
wilderness, reached Kentucky.
[Illustration]
INGENUITY IN TORTURE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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