The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 7, March, 1835 — John Shaqi
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 7, March, 1835Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 7, March, 1835
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
"I suppose I have, but I did not know it at the time." As he said
this, a gloom came over his countenance, which checked my
inquisitiveness, and he rode on, perhaps a mile, in moody silence. At
length his brow cleared, and he again spoke, but in a somewhat
saddened tone.
"It is something strange; I am not superstitious, and yet it seems to
me, as if at times, when people are in great distress of mind, they
are apt to say things that turn out almost like a prophecy. It was a
great grief to my mother, the loss of her child, and the longer she
lived the more she mourned after him. He was quite small when they
took him; and they carried him away over the lakes, so far, that they
never heard where he was, until he was almost grown up, a perfect wild
man. My mother was a religious woman; and the thought of his being
brought up among savages, where the word of God could never reach him,
went to her heart. She said, it was always borne upon her mind that he
was not dead, and that he would grow up among those vile wretches, to
be the death of his own father, and perhaps to die at last by the hand
of one of his own brothers. When they raised a party to follow the
Indians, she _would_ go with them, and all the way, she said, she
looked and looked, in hopes to see where they had dashed out her poor
child's brains against a tree. It was the only comfort she hoped for,
and that was denied her.
"As I told you, they never heard of him till he was near or quite a
man; and that was just before Dunmore's war. There was no chance to do
any thing towards getting him home at that time, for it was dangerous
to go near the Ohio. Indeed, all they knew was, that there was a white
man of about his age among the Indians, who answered to his name. It
was not until after the peace that we knew certainly all about him.
"Well! he was at the battle of the Point, fighting among the
Shawanees; and there my father was killed. When my mother heard that
he had been there, you may be sure her own words came back to her. No
body knew who killed my father. But why not he as well as another?
Flesh and blood could not have made her believe that it was not he.
"Just after that I was born, and then again my mother took it into her
head that I had come into the world to revenge my father's death.
There was no great comfort in that thought, you may be sure; so as
soon as the war was over, they tried all they could to get my brother
back. He was told that my father was dead, and had left a good estate;
and that he was the heir at law; (for you know that my father died
under the old law,) but it all would not do. He was a complete Indian,
and had an Indian wife and children that he would not leave. But he
had kind feelings for us all, and sent us word to take the estate; for
he wanted nothing but his rifle.
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