Indian Biography; Vol. 2 (of 2): Or, An Historical Account of Those Individuals Who Have Been Distinguished among the North American Natives as Orators, Warriors, Statesmen, and Other Remarkable CharactersThatcher, B. B. (Benjamin Bussey)
History
Indian Biography; Vol. 2 (of 2): Or, An Historical Account of Those Individuals Who Have Been Distinguished among the North American Natives as Orators, Warriors, Statesmen, and Other Remarkable Characters
Thatcher, B. B. (Benjamin Bussey)
Indians of North America -- Biography; Indians of North America -- History
There, with a party of Indians, he lay in ambush, patiently awaiting the
approach of a guard that accompanied the English teams employed between
the falls of Niagara and the garrison, which had there lately surrendered
to Sir William Johnston. The place selected for that purpose is now known
by the name of the Devil's Hole, and is three and a half miles below the
famous cataract upon the American side of the strait. The mind can
scarcely conceive a more dismal looking den. A large ravine, occasioned by
the falling in of the perpendicular bank, made dark by the spreading
branches of the birch and cedar, which had taken root below, and the low
murmuring of the rapids in the chasm, added to the solemn thunder of the
cataract itself, conspire to render the scene truly awful. The English
party were not aware of the dreadful fate that awaited them. Unconscious
of danger, the drivers were gaily whistling to their dull ox-teams.
Farmer's-Brother and his band, on their arrival at this spot, rushed from
the thicket that had concealed them, and commenced a horrid butchery. So
unexpected was such an event, and so completely were the English disarmed
of their presence of mind, that but a feeble resistance was made. The
guard, the teamsters, the oxen and the wagons, were precipitated into the
gulf. But two of them escaped; a Mr. Stedman, who lived at Schioper, above
the falls, being mounted on a fleet horse, made good his retreat; and one
of the soldiers, who was caught on the projecting root of a cedar, which
sustained him until assured, by the distant yell of the savages, that they
had quited the ground.--It is the rivulet, pouring itself down this
precipice, whose name is the only monument that records the massacre. It
is said to have been literally colored with the blood of the vanquished.
In the Revolutionary War, Farmer's-Brother evinced his hostility to the
Americans upon every occasion that presented itself; and, with the same
zeal, he engaged in the late war against his former friends, the English.
Another anecdote of this Chief will show, in more glowing colors, the real
savage. A short time before our army crossed the Niagara, Farmer's-Brother
chanced to observe an Indian, who had mingled with the Senecas, and whom
he instantly recognized as belonging to the Mohawks, a tribe living in
Canada, and then employed in the service of the enemy. He went up to him,
and addressed him in the Indian tongue--"I know you well--you belong to
the Mohawks--you are a spy--here is my rifle--my tomahawk--my
scalping-knife. I give you your choice which I shall use, but I am in
haste." The young warrior, finding resistance vain, chose to be put to
death with a rifle. He was ordered to lie down upon the grass, while, with
his left foot upon the breast of the victim, the Chief lodged the contents
of his rifle in his head.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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