Captives among the Indians : $b first-hand narratives of Indian wars, customs, tortures, and habits of life in colonial timesRowlandson, Mary White
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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
I now felt weary of my life, and had a full determination to make the
savages kill me, thinking that death would be exceedingly welcome when
compared to the fatigue, cruelties, and miseries I had the prospect of
enduring. To have my purpose effected I stood still, one of the savages
being before me, and the other walking behind me, and I took from off
my shoulder a large powder-horn they made me carry, in addition to my
child, who was one year and four days old. I threw the horn on the
ground, closed my eyes, and expected every moment to feel the deadly
tomahawk. But to my surprise the Indian took it up, cursed me bitterly,
and put it on my shoulder again. I took it off the second time, and
threw it on the ground, and again closed my eyes, with the assurance I
should meet death; but instead of this, the Indian again took up the
horn, and with an indignant, frightful countenance, came and placed it
on again. I took it off the third time, and was determined to effect
it, and, therefore, threw it as far as I was able from me, over the
rocks. The savage immediately went after it, while the one who had
claimed me as his squaw, and who had stood and witnessed the
transaction, came up to me and said: "Well done; you did right and are
a good squaw, and the other is a lazy son-of-a-gun; he may carry it
himself."
The savages now changed their position, and the one who claimed me as
his squaw went behind. This movement, I believe, was to prevent the
other from doing me any injury; and we went on till we struck the
Connoquenessing at the Salt Lick, about two miles above Butler, where
was an Indian camp, where we arrived a little before dark, having no
refreshment during the day. The camp was made of stakes driven into the
ground, sloping, and covered with chestnut bark, and appeared
sufficiently long for fifty men. The camp appeared to have been
occupied for some time; it was very much trodden, and large beaten
paths went out from it in different directions.
That night they took me about three hundred yards from the camp, up a
run, into a large, dark bottom, where they cut the brush in a thicket
and placed a blanket on the ground and permitted me to sit down with my
child. They then pinioned my arms back, only with a little liberty, so
that it was with difficulty that I managed my child. Here, in this
dreary situation, without fire or refreshment, having an infant to take
care of, and my arms bound behind me, and having a savage on each side
of me who had killed two of my dear children that day, I had to pass
the first night of my captivity.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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