Forest and Frontiers; Or, Adventures Among the Indians
History
Forest and Frontiers; Or, Adventures Among the Indians
Hunting; Indians of North America
In the early part of February, a large body of Indians attempted to
surprise Deerfield by night. But the inhabitants were alarmed and
prepared, and after a short conflict succeeded in driving off the
savages. Soon after a party of whites from Deerfield attacked a party
of Indians in a swamp, near that town, and killed one hundred and
twenty of them. But the whites, on their return, were waylaid, and as
they had expended all their ammunition they fell an easy prey. Fifty
were killed and eighty-four wounded. Such were the horrors of King
Philip's war.
Attack on Mrs. Scraggs's House.
On the night of the 11th of April, 1787, the house of the widow
Scraggs, in Bourbon county, Kentucky, was attacked by the Indians. The
widow occupied what is called double cabin, one room of which was
tenanted by the old lady herself, together with two grown sons and a
widowed daughter, who was at that time suckling an infant, while the
other was occupied by two unmarried daughters, from sixteen to twenty
years of age, together with a little girl, not more than half grown.
The hour was eleven o'clock at night. One of the unmarried daughters
was still busily engaged at the loom, but the other members of the
family, with the exception of one of the sons, had retired to rest.
Some symptoms of an alarming nature had engaged the attention of the
young man for an hour before any thing of a decided character took
place. The cry of owls was heard in the adjoining wood, answering each
other in rather an unusual manner. The horses which were enclosed as
usual in a pound near the house were more than commonly their excited,
and by repeated snorting and galloping, announced the presence of some
object of terror. The young man was often upon the point of awakening
his brother, but was as often restrained by the fear of incurring
ridicule and their reproach of timidity, at that time an unpardonable
blemish in the character of a Kentuckian. At length, hasty steps were
heard in the yard, and quickly afterwards several knocks at the door,
accompanied by the usual exclamation, "who keeps house?" in very good
English.
The young man, supposing from the language, that some benighted
settlers were at the door, hastily arose and advancing to withdraw the
bar which secured it, when his mother, who had long lived upon the
frontiers, and had probably detected the Indian tone in the demand for
admission, sprung out of bed, and ordered her son not to admit them,
declaring that they were Indians. She instantly awakened her other
son, and the two young men seizing their guns, which were always
charged, prepared to repel the enemy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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