Boys' Book of Indian Warriors and Heroic Indian WomenSabin, Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand)
History
Boys' Book of Indian Warriors and Heroic Indian Women
Sabin, Edwin L. (Edwin Legrand)
Indians of North America -- Biography; Indians of North America -- Wars
There were white men not so particular as he. On Baker's Bottom,
opposite the mouth of Yellow Creek, lived Joshua Baker, whose principal
business was that of selling rum to the Indians. In the same
settlement lived Daniel Greathouse--"a ruffian in human shape," and an
enemy to all Indians.
Greathouse, too, was inspired to "strike the post," in the worst Indian
fashion. He gathered thirty-two whites, and hid them in Baker's house.
He feared that the Logan camp had heard of the Cresap killings, so he
crossed over the river, to investigate.
A friendly squaw warned him to go back, or he might be harmed, for the
camp was very angry. Back he went. Because he was afraid to attack
the camp with his thirty-two men, he invited the Indians over, to drink
"peace" with him. He was a rum seller, himself.
On April 30, they came. First a canoe containing six warriors, Logan's
sister, another woman, and a little girl. The warriors were made
drunk, and all but the little girl were butchered.
Across the river Logan heard the shooting. He sent two men in a canoe
to find out what was the matter. They were killed. A larger canoe was
sent. It was ambushed and the survivors fled back to the camp.
Now Logan learned that his sister and brother had been murdered. They
were the last of his blood relatives. That was his reward for having
remained the friend of the white man. That was his reward for having
opened his cabin to the white wayfarer. He went bad, himself. He saw
only red, and he vowed vengeance. A bitter wrath turned his heart
sour. He felt that he must grasp the hatchet, buried so long ago by
his father Shikellemus.
The war spirit blazed high among whites and reds on the frontier. The
whites accused the Indians of many thoughts and deeds--some false, some
true. The Indians accused the whites of many deeds--mainly true.
Block-houses were hastily erected, for the protection of settlers.
Governor Dunmore of Virginia called out troops in earnest. "Dunmore's
War" as well as "Cresap's War" was this named.
The Shawnees, the Delawares, the Mingo Cayugas, the Wyandot Hurons,
held councils in their Scioto River country of central Ohio. Belts
were sent to the Miamis on the west and the Senecas on the east. There
were debates upon striking the Long Knives, as the Virginians were
called.
These Long Knife Americans had crossed the rivers and the mountains,
were possessing themselves of Ohio, and even of Kentucky; much blood
had been shed, and the wiser heads among the tribes did not know
exactly what to do about it.
The great Cornstalk, loved chief of the Shawnees, and now fifty years
in age, lifted his voice for peace. He could see no good in a war
against the Americans. Logan, gnawed by his own wrongs, remained apart
and said little. But the Americans struck first.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Boys' Book of Indian Warriors and Heroic Indian Women — John Shaqi
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