Narrative of the Captivity of William Biggs among the Kickapoo Indians in Illinois in 1788Biggs, William
History
Narrative of the Captivity of William Biggs among the Kickapoo Indians in Illinois in 1788
Biggs, William
Indian captivities; Kickapoo Indians
round my ankles; then took a small cord and tied in between my wrists,
and also between my ankles very tight, in order to prevent me from
drawing out my hands or feet; they then took another cord and tied one
end to the neck rope; then to the hand rope; then from the hand rope to
the knee rope; they then took a rope about six feet long and tied one
end to the wrist rope, and the other end to a stake about six feet from
me stretched very tight, and an Indian laid on that rope all night; then
they took another rope about the same length, and tied one end to the
knee rope and the other end to a stake, and another Indian laid on that
all night; then they tied a large half-dressed elk rope, one end to the
back part of the neck rope which made a knot as big as my fist, the
other end they tied to a stake about six feet from my head. When they
finished their tying me, they covered me with a blanket. They tied me in
the aforegoing way nine nights in succession; they had me stretched and
tied so tight, that I could not move one inch to turn or rest myself;
that large knot was on the back of my neck, so that I was obliged to lay
on it all night, and it hurt my neck very much. I never suffered as much
in the same length of time in all my life; I could hardly walk when we
got out to their town. They never made me carry anything except a
blanket they gave me to keep myself warm, when they took all my clothes
from me. The Indians carried a deer-skin and blanket all the way for me
to lodge upon. When my hands and feet became sore with the tying the
Indians would always pull off my moccasins at night and put them on in
the morning, and patch them when they would require it.
The second day we started very early in the morning and traveled about
thirty-five miles, which was the 29th of March.
The third day we traveled about thirty miles, which was the 30th of
March. They killed a deer that day--in the evening they took the
intestines out of the deer and freed them of their contents, when they
put them in the kettles with some meat and made soup, I could not eat
any of it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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