Captives among the Indians : $b first-hand narratives of Indian wars, customs, tortures, and habits of life in colonial timesRowlandson, Mary White
History
Captives among the Indians : $b first-hand narratives of Indian wars, customs, tortures, and habits of life in colonial times
Rowlandson, Mary White
Indian captivities -- Northeastern States
The Indians were then in great hopes that they would drive all the
Virginians over the lake, which is all the name they know for the sea.
When the warriors left this town we had neither meat, sugar, or bear's
oil left. All that we had then to live on was corn pounded into coarse
meal or small hominy; this they boiled in water, which appeared like
well-thickened soup, without salt or anything else. For some time we
had plenty of this kind of hominy; at length we were brought to very
short allowance, and as the warriors did not return as soon as they
expected, we were soon in a starving condition, and but one gun in the
town, and very little ammunition. The old lame Wyandot concluded that
he would go a-hunting in a canoe, and take me with him, and try to kill
deer in the water, as it was then watering time. We went up Sandusky a
few miles, then turned up a creek and encamped. We had lights prepared,
as we were to hunt in the night, and also a piece of bark and some
bushes set up in the canoe, in order to conceal ourselves from the
deer. A little boy that was with us held the light; I worked the canoe,
and the old man, who had his gun loaded with large shot, when we came
near the deer, fired, and in this manner killed three deer in part of
one night. We went to our fire, ate heartily, and in the morning
returned to town in order to relieve the hungry and distressed.
When we came to town the children were crying bitterly on account of
pinching hunger. We delivered what we had taken, and though it was but
little among so many, it was divided according to the strictest rules
of justice. We immediately set out for another hunt, but before we
returned a part of the warriors had come in, and brought with them on
horseback a quantity of meat. These warriors had divided into different
parties, and all struck at different places in Augusta County. They
brought in with them a considerable number of scalps, prisoners,
horses, and other plunder. One of the parties brought in with them one
Arthur Campbell, that is now Colonel Campbell, who lives on Holston
River, near the Royal Oak. As the Wyandots at Sunyendeand and those at
Detroit were connected, Mr. Campbell was taken to Detroit; but he
remained some time with me in this town. His company was very
agreeable, and I was sorry when he left me. During his stay at
Sunyendeand he borrowed my Bible, and made some pertinent remarks on
what he had read. One passage was where it is said, "It is good for a
man that he bear the yoke in his youth." He said we ought to be
resigned to the will of Providence, as we were now bearing the yoke in
our youth. Mr. Campbell appeared to be then about sixteen or seventeen
years of age.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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