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
I again left my course, bearing to the left, and came upon the
head-waters of Squaw Run, and kept down the run the remainder of that
day. It rained, and I was in a very deplorable situation; so cold and
shivering were my limbs, that frequently, in opposition to all my
struggles, I gave an involuntary groan. I suffered intensely from
hunger, though my jaws were so far recovered that, wherever I could, I
procured grape-vines, and chewed them for a little sustenance. In the
evening I came within one mile of the Alleghany River, though I was
ignorant of it at the time; and there, at the root of a tree, through a
most tremendous rain, I took up my fifth night's lodgings. In order to
shelter my infant as much as possible, I placed him in my lap, and then
leaned my head against the tree, and thus let the rain fall upon me.
On the sixth (that was the Sabbath) morning from my captivity, I found
myself unable, for a very considerable time, to raise myself from the
ground; and when I had once more, by hard struggling, got myself upon
my feet and started, nature was so nearly exhausted and my spirits were
so completely depressed that my progress was amazingly slow and
discouraging. In this almost helpless condition I had not gone far
before I came to a path where there had been cattle travelling; I took
it, under the impression that it would lead me to the abode of some
white people, and in about a mile I came to an uninhabited cabin, and
though I was in a river bottom, yet I knew not where I was nor yet on
what river bank I had come.
Here I was seized with feelings of despair, went to the threshold of
the cabin and concluded that I would enter and lie down and die, since
death would have been an angel of mercy to me in such a miserable
situation. Had it not been for the sufferings which my infant, who
would survive me some time, must endure, I would have carried my
determination into execution. Here I heard the sound of a cow-bell,
which imparted a gleam of hope to my desponding mind. I followed the
sound till I came opposite the fort at the Six Mile Island, where I saw
three men on the opposite bank of the river.
My feelings then can be better imagined than described. I called to
them, but they seemed unwilling to risk the danger of coming after me,
and asked who I was. I told them, and they requested me to walk up the
bank awhile that they might see if Indians were making a decoy of me;
but I replied my feet were so sore I could not walk. Then one of them,
James Closier, got into a canoe to fetch me over, while the other two
stood with cocked rifles ready to fire on the Indians, provided they
were using me as a decoy. When Mr. Closier came near and saw my haggard
and dejected appearance, he exclaimed, "Who in the name of God are
you?" This man was one of my nearest neighbors, yet in six days I was
so much altered that he did not know me, either by my voice or
countenance.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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