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
We concluded to coast it round the lake, and in two days we came to the
mouth of the Miami of the Lake, and landed on Cedar Point, where we
remained several days. Here we held a council, and concluded we would
take a driving hunt in concert and in partnership.
The river in this place is about a mile broad, and as it and the lake
form a kind of neck, which terminates in a point, all the hunters
(which were fifty-three) went up the river, and we scattered ourselves
from the river to the lake. When we first began to move we were not in
sight of each other, but as we all raised the yell, we could move
regularly together by the noise. At length we came in sight of each
other, and appeared to be marching in good order; before we came to the
point, both the squaws and boys in the canoes were scattered up the
river and along the lake, to prevent the deer from making their escape
by water. As we advanced near the point the guns began to crack slowly,
and after some time the firing was like a little engagement. The squaws
and boys were busy tomahawking the deer in the water, and we shooting
them down on the land. We killed in all about thirty deer, though a
great many made their escape by water.
Here our company separated. The chief part of them went up the Miami
River,[4] which empties into Lake Erie at Cedar Point, while we
proceeded on our journey in company with Tecaughretanego, Tontileaugo,
and two families of the Wyandots.
[4] The Miami of the Lakes, now called Maumee.
As cold weather was now approaching, we began to feel the doleful
effects of extravagantly and foolishly spending the large quantity of
beaver we had taken in our last winter's hunt. We were all nearly in
the same circumstances; scarcely one had a shirt to his back; but each
of us had an old blanket which we belted round us in the day, and slept
in at night, with a deer or bear skin under us for our bed.
When we came to the Falls of Sandusky we buried our birch-bark canoes,
as usual, at a large burying-place for that purpose, a little below the
falls. At this place the river falls about eight feet over a rock, but
not perpendicularly. With much difficulty we pushed up our wooden
canoes; some of us went up the river, and the rest by land with the
horses, until we came to the great meadows or prairies that lie between
Sandusky and Sciota.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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