Forest and Frontiers; Or, Adventures Among the Indians
History
Forest and Frontiers; Or, Adventures Among the Indians
Hunting; Indians of North America
They sent two Indians with her, and the others took their course
towards Puckty. She, the children, and the two Indians had not gone
above two hundred yards, when the Indians caught two of her uncle's
horses, put her and the youngest child on one, and one of the Indians
and the other child on the other. The two Indians then took her and
the children to the Alleghany river, and took them over in bark
canoes, as they could not get the horses to swim the river. After they
had crossed the river, the oldest child, a boy about five years of
age, began to mourn for his brother, when one of the Indians
tomahawked and scalped him. They travelled all day very hard, and that
night arrived at a large camp, covered with bark, which, by
appearance, might hold fifty men. That night they took her about three
hundred yards from the camp, into a large dark bottom, bound her arms,
gave her some bed clothes, and lay down one on each side of her.
The next morning they took her into a thicket, on the hill side, and
one remained with her till the middle of the day, while the other went
to watch the path, lest some white people should follow them. They
then exchanged places during the remainder of the day. She got a piece
of dry venison, about the size of an egg, that day, and a piece about
the same size the day they were marching; that evening, (Wednesday,
23d) they moved her to a new place, and secured her as the night
before. During the day of the 23'd, she made several attempts to get
the Indian's gun or tomahawk, that was guarding her, and, had she
succeeded, she would have put him to death. She was nearly detected in
trying to get the tomahawk from his belt.
The next morning one of the Indians went out, as on the day before, to
watch the path. The other lay down and fell asleep. When she found he
was sleeping, she stole her short gown, handkerchief, a child's frock,
and then made her escape; the sun was then about half an hour
high--she took her course from the Alleghany, in order to deceive the
Indians, as they would naturally pursue her that way; that day she
travelled along Conequenessing creek. The next day she altered her
course, and, as she believes, fell upon the waters of Pine Creek,
which empties into the Alleghany. Thinking this not her best course,
she took over some dividing ridges,--lay on a dividing ridge on Friday
night, and on Saturday came to Squaw run--continued down the run until
an Indian, or some other person, shot a deer; she saw the person about
one hundred and fifty yards from her--the deer running and the dog
pursuing it, which, from the appearance, she supposed to be an Indian
dog.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account