The Daughter of the Chieftain : the Story of an Indian GirlEllis, Edward Sylvester
General
The Daughter of the Chieftain : the Story of an Indian Girl
Ellis, Edward Sylvester
Delaware Indians -- Fiction; Indian women -- North America -- Fiction; Indians of North America -- Fiction
On the way over, Linna, the little Indian girl, amused herself by diving
under the canoe, sometimes appearing on one side and then on the other,
sometimes in front and then at the rear. She even ventured to impose
upon her father by splashing water in his painted face. She did little
of that, and he paid no attention to it.
The sun had not yet set when the grim warrior and his child emerged on
the eastern shore, their garments dripping, but caring nothing for that.
The boat was drawn far enough up the bank to prevent its being swept
away by the current, and then all stood side by side, and as if by a
common impulse, looked back at the shore they had left.
The smoke from the burning Fort Wintermoot still rested on the calm
surface of the river, and filtered among the green vegetation near the
scene of the battle. Other buildings had been fired, and mingled their
vapor with it.
Here and there, every minute or two, sounded the sharp crack of a rifle.
This too often meant that some fugitive had been run down by his cruel
pursuer, who listened to no pleadings for mercy. A good many had taken
refuge on Monacacy Island, from which the reports of guns continually
came.
I have not the space here to tell you of the wonderful escapes at
Wyoming, the particulars of which I have given in another work.
One boy, who was with several men near Fort Jenkins before the battle,
saw all the men shot down or captured; but he hid himself among some
willows and was not noticed.
If you ever visit the scene of the battle, you will notice a broad, flat
stone, called Queen Esther's Rock, a half dozen miles below Wilkesbarre.
Queen Esther was an old, cruel, half breed woman who came with the
Indians. She is sometimes known as Katharine Montour. A son of hers
was killed in the conflict, and she was so angered that she had sixteen
captives placed around the rock, and meant to slay them all, while the
warriors prevented them from escaping.
Nevertheless two of the young men jumped up and started on a run for
the river. The guards dashed after them. One caught his toe, and rolled
headlong down the bank into some bushes. Instead of springing up again,
as he first started to do, he lay still, and though the Indians almost
stepped upon him, he was not discovered, and got off without harm.
The other reached the river, took a running leap and dived, and swam
under water as far as he could. When he came up to breathe, the waiting
red men fired at him again and again. He was wounded, but not badly,
and, reaching the other side, caught a stray horse, made a bridle from a
hickory withe, and soon joined his friend.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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