200 - HISTORY OF OHIO. knew that the savages, maddened by the battle, would massacre, without discrimination, every one — men, women and children, —taken within the palisades. Colonel Boone was sufficiently acquainted with the Shawanese language to understand every word which was spoken. Sagaciously, however, he assumed from the moment of his capture, entire ignorance of their speech. Thus he listened to all the details of their plan to surprise the fort. It had become to him a matter of infinite moment to escape from his captivity, and convey to his friends the tidings of their peril. But the jealous Indians were very wary. The slightest suspicion of any attempt to escape on his part would expose him to a vigilance of watchfulness, which it would be impossible for him to elude. So skillfully did he conceal his feelings, and with such apparent eagerness did he aid in all their military operations, that the Indians remitted even their ordinary vigilance. Just after the break of day, in one of the most lovely mornings of the middle of June, Colonel Boone left the lodge of his adopted father to go out on his usual hunt. His service in bringing in game had become unusually important, as nearly all the warriors of the tribe were engrossed in preparations for the great enterprise. The British officers had enlisted about a dozen French Canadians in their service, and the French and English banners were blended with those of the savages in readiness for the march. The Indians had allowed Boone ammunition for the hunt of only one day. As soon as he had entered the forest, beyond sight of the crowd of savage warriors clustered in the village, he hastened to his little magazine in the hollow of a tree, and filled his pockets with the ammunition which he had so carefully stored away there. He then commenced his rapid flight, with sinews as tireless as if made of steel, down the Valley of the Miami towards the Ohio River. Many hours would elapse before the slightest suspicion would arise of his attempt to escape. But he knew that the moment his flight was suspected four hundred and fifty warriors would be in hot pursuit after him. Many of them would be mounted on fleet horses, and all of them were swift runners. They would all be breathing vengeance, for they deemed it one of the most atrocious and unpardonable of crimes, for an adopted son to desert his tribe. If captured, the HISTORY OF OHIO - 201 infuriated Indians would wreak upon him all their vengeance. His death by the most cruel torture was inevitable. It is, however, not probable that these thoughts seriously disturbed the equanimity of Colonel Boone. He was always hopeful, and never yielded to desponding presentiments. An unwavering trust in the protection of God seemed to sustain and soothe him in the darkest hours. He was then forty-three years of age. In power of endurance, in skill in threading the forest and in eluding his foes, there was no Indian of any tribe who surpassed him. It was often said that he had never experienced the emotion of fear. Though four hundred and fifty veteran warriors and athletic young braves would crowd the Valley of the Miami, like bloodhounds baying after their victim, he, in his great modesty, seems to have been quite unconscious of the sublimity, peril and grandeur of the achievement he had undertaken. In his autobiography he alludes to the enterprise, only in the following words : " On the sixteenth of June, before sunrise, I departed from Old Chillicothe in the most secret manner. I arrived at Boonesborough on the twentieth, after a journey of one hundred and sixty miles, during which I had but one meal." It was, of course, necessary for Colonel Boone, as soon as he was out of sight of the Little Miami Village, to fly with the utmost speed, that he might put as great a distance as possible between himself and the Indians before they could commence the pursuit. He subsequently learned that it was not till late in the afternoon that his flight was suspected. The greatest agitation, and even consternation, was then manifested in the camp. Should he escape and carry to Boonesborough the tidings of the contemplated foray, all their plans would be frustrated. Immediately a large party of the swiftest runners and keenest hunters were put upon his track, while the rest were to follow the next day. But Boone had already put many leagues between himself and his foes. Still, he dared not fire a gun or kindle a fire, or, in the exhaustion of his flight, take an hour for sleep. Onward and still onward he pressed, by night as by day, till at length he reached the Ohio River. The majestic stream was swollen by spring floods, and it was now rolling in a swift and turbid current half a mile in width, filling the bed of the stream from shore to shore with almost fathomless waters. Thus far 202 - HISTORY OF OHIO. Colonel Boone had appeased his hunger with a few cuts of dried venison, with which he had secretly provided himself. He now stood upon the banks of the stream and looked with great anxiety upon the wild rush of the waters. Though experienced in woodcraft, he was not an expert swimmer. It seemed impossible for him to cross the river. Unless he could cross it, his capture was inevitable. As he was rapidly following up the stream, trying in vain to form some plan of escape, he came providentially upon an old canoe, which had drifted among the bushes upon the shore. There was a large hole at one end, and it was nearly full of mud and water. He succeeded in bailing out the water and in plugging up the hole, and, though at the imminent peril of foundering, paddled his way across the stream. Then, with the broad Ohio between himself and his pursuers, he ventured to indulge a little in the luxury of food and sleep. Shooting a turkey, he kindled a fire and cooked it, and feasted upon the delicious viands with the appetite of a half-famished man. He then found a covert, where even the keen eye of the Indian would not search him out, and indulged in a few hours of sweet sleep. This was the only real meal, and the only refreshing sleep, he enjoyed during his flight. At the close of the fifth day he entered the little gate of the fortress at Boonesborough, where he was received as one risen from the dead. He had been absent nearly six months, and as no tidings had been received from him, not even as to the circumstances attending his capture, all had supposed he was no longer living. Much to his disappointment, he found neither wife nor children at Boonesborough. Mrs. Boone, who seems to have been a very estimable woman, despairing of ever seeing her husband again, had taken her children, and returned to her father's house in North Carolina. It was a long, dreary and perilous journey through the wilderness, but it is gratifying to record that it was accomplished in safety. Colonel Boone found the fort, as he had expected, in a very bad state of defense. But his presence and the tidings which he brought infused new energies into the little community. Every available hand, of men, women and boys, was put to work, night and day, to strengthen the defenses. Everything was done, which skill could devise, to repel an assault from an overpowering band of savages, armed with English rifles and led by British officers. 204 - HISTORY OF OHIO. In ten days Boonesborough had made all the preparations which were possible for the dreadful onset. The heroic Boone then — acting upon the principle of Napoleon I., that, in a defensive war, it was often the best policy to assume the offensive, and that when a battle was inevitable, it should be fought, if possible, on the enemy's soil— selected a small party of but nineteen men and commenced a bold march to the very homes of the Indians. Boonesborough was in the heart of Kentucky, on the Kentucky River, nearly two hundred miles, as one follows the windings of the stream, from where it enters the Ohio. By marching directly through the wilderness in a line due North, leaving the Kentucky River far away, in its serpentine flow, on the left, the Ohio was reached, opposite the mouth of the Little Miami, after a journey of about one hundred miles. Much of the route led along the valley of the Licking River. For the whole distance it was an unbroken solitude. Not a single settler's cabin cheered the gloom, and not even an Indian village was found on the way. The region was regarded by many tribes as common hunting-ground, which no one tribe was allowed to appropriate to itself. Through such a wilderness this band of heroes commenced its march, to meet in deadly battle and in their strongholds a British army of nearly five hundred savages. One of the greatest of captains has said : " An army of deer led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a deer." But here was an army of lions led by the most royal of them all. There was no trail through the forest to guide their march. On they eagerly pressed, over hills and through valleys, wading morasses and fording streams, until they reached the Ohio. How they crossed the broad and rapid river we know not. But they did cross, and soon found themselves in the Valley of the Miami. Silently, with moccasined feet and in single file, this little army of one score men entered the country of their foes. They cautiously avoided the trails leading along the valley, which the Indian's foot, for countless generations, had trodden smooth. Should they meet a single Indian by the way, he, by rapid flight, would convey the tidings which would bring down the warriors in overwhelming numbers upon them. Their only hope of success was in striking their foes by surprise. Creeping cautiously along they had arrived within about four miles of an Indian village called Paint Creek, where they intended HISTORY OF OHIO - 205 to make their first attack, when suddenly they came upon a band of thirty savage warriors, who were descending the valley to join other bands on the march to Boonesborough. Instantly Boone ordered the charge. The savages, taken by surprise, and supposing that there must be an army of white men, who had thus ventured into their country, fled precipitately, leaving behind them three horses and all their baggage. Two of their warriors were shot dead and two others wounded. The white men suffered no loss. Colonel Boone, as cautious as he was brave, sent forward two swift runners to spy out, from some covert, what was, going on in Paint Creek. If the main body of the army were assembled there, ready to rush upon him, his position would be perilous indeed. His only possible safety would be found in the most hasty flight. This was so manifest that he at once commenced slowly a retreat. The runners soon returned with the tidings that there was a large army of warriors at Paint Creek, and that they all were in a state of great commotion, preparing for some immediate movement. Fearing that their retreat might be cut off, these hardy men commenced a very rapid flight back to the fort, which they reached after an absence of but seven days. Had they succeeded in entering the valley by surprise, they could have swept its whole extent with desolation never to be forgotten. Indian runners would have hastened to Boonesborough to apprise the warriors of the invasion. This would have rendered it necessary for the savages to abandon the siege and hasten back for the protection of their own homes. As it was, much good was accomplished. It inspired the savages with new ideas of the valor and strength of the white men. It also greatly emboldened the garrison, and gave them the important intelligence that their foes were on the march. On the eighth of August, the Indian army arrived. It consisted of four hundred and forty-four privates. Of these, all were savages excepting eleven, who were Canadians that had enlisted in the service of the English. They were commanded by a Captain Duquesne. With considerable military pomp they approached the fort—the banners of France and England flying side by side, and the savages marching beneath their proud pennons, decorated with scalps. As soon as Captain Duquesne had posted his troops, so as to command all the important points, he sent a 206 - HISTORY OF OHIO. flag of truce, demanding, in the name of his Britannic Majesty, the immediate surrender of the fortress and all its inmates. Colonel Boone requested two days to consider the question. As escape was impossible, and it was certain that no reinforcements could arrive, and since the rest of two days would prepare the savage warriors for a more furious onset, the request was granted. Colonel Boone, writing of this event, says : " It was now a critical period with us. We were a small number in the garrison. A powerful army was before our walls, whose appearance proclaimed inevitable death. Death was preferable to captivity. If taken by storm, we must inevitably be devoted to destruction. The summons for the surrender was made on the morning of the eighth. The British commander, impatient of delay, demanded an answer on the evening of the ninth. It was not deemed expedient to admit him within the gates, as he might thus spy out the measures which were adopted for the defense. Knowing, however, that he was dealing with civilized men, he approached near enough to the fort to receive his answer from Colonel Boone himself." The heroic commander said to him : " I shall not surrender this fortress, while there is a single man left alive to defend it. We laugh at your preparations for an attack, and still we thank you for giving us time to complete our preparations to repel you. You will not take this fort. Our gates will forever deny you admittance." These were very bold words. Captain Duquesne was apprehensive that Colonel Boone might have some means of defense which he could not overcome. He knew, as did every man in the fort, that should the savages take the place by assault, no earthly power could restrain their fury. Every one within the palisades, men, women and children, would fall beneath their tomahawks, and, with fiend-like yells, their bloody scalps would be waved in triumph from their pennon poles. Perhaps this consideration moved the heart of a British officer, and induced him again to try the influence of diplomacy. And still, in the account which we have of these events, he is represented as contemplating an act of treachery of which we can hardly conceive it possible that a British officer should be guilty. He represented that it would be utterly impossible for him to save the life of a single inmate of the fort, should his savage allies take HISTORY OF OHIO - 207 it by violence; but that if he would come out, with nine of his leading men, they could undoubtedly enter into a treaty, binding the garrison not to take any part in the war between the colonies and the mother country, which would satisfy Governor Hamilton,. of Detroit, under whose orders he was acting. It will be remembered that Governor Hamilton knew Colonel Boone, and regarded him with friendly feelings. Having formed this treaty, Captain Duquesne promised to withdraw his savage soldiers, and recrossing the Ohio River, to return them peaceably to their homes in the Valley of the Miami. An account of the results of this proposition must be reserved for the next chapter. CHAPTER XI. DISASTER AND REVENGE. COUNCIL AT BOONESBOROUGH - PERFIDY OF BLACKFISH - THE TREACHERY THWARTED - PROPOSED TERMS OF CAPITULATION - RENEWAL OF THE BATTLE HONEST LOYALTY OF BOONE SITE OF THE FORT - RETREAT OF THE SAVAGES - THEIR CHAGRIN - THE DISASTER TO COLONEL ROGERS - EXPEDITION OF COLONEL BOWMAN - ENTIRE FAILURE - EARLY HISTORY OF SIMON KENTON - SURPRISED BY THE INDIANS - THE HUT IN THE WILDERNESS- ATTRACTIVE SCENE - SINGULAR CONFLICT WITH A WHITE MAN - VISIT TO BOONESBOROUGH - KENTON SAVES THE LIFE OF BOONE - AWFUL FATE OF WILLIAMS - CAPTIVITY OF KENTON - HIS TERRIBLE SUFFERINGS -THE SERENE EVENING OF HIS LIFE-HIS CHRISTIAN DEATH, THERE WERE but fifty men in the garrison at Boonesborough. They were assailed by a body of Indian warriors, outnumbering them more than eight to one. These savages were led by the renowned Shawanese Chieftain, Blackfish, who had adopted Boone as his son, and who was tremendously exasperated against him, for his ungrateful escape from so loving a father. The British commander had but very slight control over these wild men. He could supply them with the best of the weapons of war, and through their Chieftain, guide their general movements, but there his authority ended. Still the alliance of savage ferocity, with British intelligence, was dreadful. Captain Duquesne, as before mentioned, was acting under instructions from Governor Hamilton. This induced Boone to accede to his proposal of holding a council to confer respecting a treaty of peace. He, however, having spent his life among the Indians, was far better acquainted with their character, than was Duquesne. He knew full well that if his father-in-law, the Chieftain, Blackfish, :meditated perfidy, Duquesne had no power whatever to arrest his HISTORY OF OHIO - 209 uplifted hand. He therefore, to guard against treachery, appointed the place of meeting at but one hundred and twenty feet distant from the fort, upon a spot which would be perfectly commanded by its rifles. Every man in the garrison was secretly placed in position, with guns loaded and primed, to take fearful vengeance upon the enemy, if any perfidy were attempted. In addition to this, he selected to accompany him nine of the most muscular and athletic men under his command, each one of whom was more than a match for the most powerful of the Indians. The terms proposed by Captain Duquesne were liberal, and it is by no means certain that he intended to be guilty of any dishonor. They were such as ought to have been satisfactory to any fair-minded Englishman. Colonel Boone therefore thought it not improbable that he might be sincere in the suggestion. The only object of the British government was, to bring the colonists back to their allegiance to the crown. But the Indians, on the warpath, were like wolves who had lapped blood rushing towards the sheep-fold. They were not only eager to drive the colonists back from their hunting-grounds, but they wished to load themselves with the plunder of their dwellings — to obtain glory by the exhibition of their scalps, and to gratify their savage natures by the shrieks which torture could extort from their prisoners at the stake. Boone, and his little band of hardy pioneers, had for years been buried in the depths of the wilderness, hundreds of miles west of the Alleghany Mountains. They could know very little of the controversy which had arisen between the colonists and the mother country, and could take but little personal interest in the quarrel. They had always regarded the British King as their lawful sovereign. When, therefore, Captain Duquesne proposed that they should take the oath of allegiance to the king, they were not particularly averse to doing so. And even should it be insisted that they should abandon Boonesborough, and return, unmolested with their possessions, to their old homes and friends east of the mountains, this was far preferable to remaining in the wilderness to be attacked by thousands of merciless savages, abundantly provided with the munitions of war from British arsenals. The commissioners on both sides appeared at the appointed 210 - HISTORY OF OHIO. time and place, as usual entirely unarmed. After brief discussion, a treaty was drawn up and signed, allowing the inmates of the fort to withdraw with all their transportable property, under the pledge of protection from harm. While the conference was going on, the watchful eye of Boone observed that a large number of Indian warriors, the old chieftain Blackfish among them, who seemed to be listlessly loitering around, were gradually approaching the place of council. As the ceremony of signing the treaty was proceeding, they drew near, as if lured by curiosity alone. He noticed that Blackfish regarded him with an exceedingly unamiable expression of countenance. As soon as the signatures were attached to the articles, the old chief stepped forward and said, in the most pompous style of Indian eloquence, that the bravery of the two armies was equal, and that he and his warriors desired only peace and friendship with all the white men. He closed his long harangue with the words : " It is the invariable custom with the Indian braves to ratify every important treaty by shaking of hands. On such occasions, in token of our entire fraternity, two red men shake hands with each white man, one Indian taking the right hand, and the other the left at the same time." This very shallow pretense was, of course, at once comprehended. It was scarcely up to the sagacity of ordinary children. Blackfish supposed that two savages grappling, at the same moment, the hand of one of the garrison, would be able at least to make him a prisoner. Thus the whole nine would be captured. Then, by binding them to stakes, piling the fagots around them, and threatening them with death by the most cruel tortures, in face of the whole garrison, they might compel the surrender of the fort. The precautions of Colonel Boone had prepared him for the emergency. No two savages could drag away any one of the burly pioneers whom he had brought with him from the fort. And there were forty unerring riflemen ready to strike down, in an instant, forty warriors, should the crime be attempted. They had also other guns ready at their sides to repeat, with scarcely an instant's cessation, the volley of death. Boone, assuming to be satisfied of their honesty, assented to the arrangement. The grasp was given. Instantly the fiend-like savages raised the war-whoop, as they endeavored to drag off their victims. Terrible was the scene that ensued. Eighteen HISTORY OF OHIO - 213 savages had seized nine white men. Without one moment's delay the report of forty rifles was heard, and nearly every one of those eighteen warriors dropped in his blood. The intended victims were thus released from their clutches. At the same moment more than four hundred savage warriors made the welkin resound with their yells, as they rushed forward to seize those whom they supposed to have been captured. But the soldiers, protected by the incessant fire of their comrades, on swift feet reached the fort in safety ; only one, the brother of Colonel Boone, being slightly wounded. We have no means of knowing whether the British officer was ashamed of the perfidy of his savage allies. We simply know that Captain Duquesne and Chieftain Blackfish immediately combined all their energies in the prosecution of the siege. They divided the savage army into two forces of about two hundred and twenty men each. They had an abundant supply of ammunition, and, for nine days and nights, they kept up almost an incessant fire upon the fort. This fort, so important in the early history of the great valley, was built upon the left bank of the Kentucky River, not far from the center of the state. It consisted of several log huts, so arranged as to enclose a square of about one acre of ground. The spaces between the log houses were filled with palisades of stout timbers planted closely together, and about twelve feet high. These palisades and walls were bullet-proof. The fort was built so near the river that one of the angles reached into the river, furnishing them thus an unfailing supply of water. Each of the corner houses projected a little, so that from the port-holes any assailant could be shot who should approach with ladder or hatchet. It was really an artistic structure, and presented a very formidable obstacle to any foe who should attack it without artillery. Colonel Boone, describing the scene from the moment when they presented their hands to the savages, writes : "They immediately grappled us. But although surrounded by hundreds of savages, we extricated ourselves from them, and all escaped safe into the garrison except one, who was wounded by a heavy fire from their army. They immediately attacked us from every side, and a constant heavy fire ensued between us, day and night, for the space of nine days. In this time the enemy began to undermine our fort. They began at the watermark and pro- 214 - HISTORY OF OHIO. ceeded in the bank some distance, which we understood by their making the water muddy with the clay. We immediately proceeded to disappoint their design, by cutting a trench across their subterranean passage. The enemy discovering our countermine, by the clay that we threw out of the fort, desisted from that stratagem. Experience now fully convincing them that neither their power nor their policy could effect their purpose, on the twentieth of August they raised the siege and departed. " During this siege, which threatened death in every form, we had two men killed and four wounded, besides a number of cattle. We killed thirty-seven, and wounded a great number. After they were gone, we picked up one hundred and twenty-five pounds weight of bullets, besides what stuck in the logs of our fort, which is certainly a great proof of their industry." At one time the Indians succeeded in throwing upon the roof of one of the buildings some flaming combustibles attached to an arrow. The roof was almost as dry as powder. The fort was threatened with immediate and fatal conflagration. One of the young men, at the imminent peril of his life, exposing himself to the fire of the savage sharpshooters, succeeded in extinguishing the flames. All the region directly around the fort was cleared of stumps and trees, so that the rifles of the garrison compelled the assailants to keep at a very considerable distance. The repulse of the savages at Boonesborough greatly disheartened them. They returned, much chagrined, across the Ohio to their homes on the Little Miami, without a single scalp to exhibit as the trophy of their expedition. Soon, however, they had an opportunity for petty revenge. Colonel Rogers, an officer of the colonial army, was ascending the river from New Orleans to Pittsburgh, with supplies for that station. He had several boats, protected by a force of between sixty and seventy soldiers. When he arrived near the mouth of the Little Miami, he saw a large number of Indian warriors, decorated with their war paint and well armed, crossing the Ohio River to the Kentucky shore. They were on the march to carry fire and blood to some lonely settlement on the frontier. Colonel Rogers, supposing himself to be unseen by the savages, and greatly under-estimating their numbers, resolved to attack them, hoping to take them by surprise. He accordingly landed his men, and was cautiously advancing through the forest, when HISTORY OF OHIO - 215 he suddenly found himself almost surrounded by an overwhelming number of savages, thoroughly armed with rifles. They fell upon him with great fury. In a few moments, Colonel Rogers himself and sixty of his men were shot down. Two or three only escaped to carry up the river, to the settlements, the sad tidings of the massacre. It was immediately resolved by the colonial authorities to avenge this disaster. Colonel Bowman issued a call for all the frontiersmen, in the various posts and settlements, who were willing to volunteer to punish these Ohio Indians, to rendezvous at Harrodsburgh, a small station about fifty miles west of Boonesborough. A well-armed body of hardy pioneers, three hundred in number, were soon assembled at that point. With rapid march, they directed their steps northward, a distance of more than a hundred miles, before they reached the Ohio River, nearly opposite the present site of Cincinnati. In frail boats, hastily constructed, they crossed the river, and soon entered the V alley of the Little Miami. With cautious but rapid tread, they pressed along in the ascent of the valley, till just before nightfall, about the middle of July, they reached the vicinity of Old Chillicothe, the most important Indian town in the valley. It was determined to divide their forces and attack the town by surprise, just before the dawn of the morning. Colonel Bowman was to attack in front. Colonel Logan, leading a hundred and fifty men, groped his way through the forest to be ready, at a given signal, to attack the foe in the rear. Successfully and undiscovered he accomplished his movement, and was concealing his men behind trees, stumps and logs, to await the signal of attack, when the sharp ear of a watch dog caught some unusual sound, and he commenced barking very furiously. The troops were then at the distance of but a few rods from the Indian lodges. A savage came out from his hut, and looking anxiously around, came near the concealed troops. One of the party, either by accident or through great imprudence, discharged his gun. The savage immediately gave an exceedingly shrill war whoop. The Indians lose no time in dressing. In an instant every man, woman and child was out of the lodges. The bewildered warriors were rushing about, preparing to battle an unseen foe. In the dim light Colonel Logan could see the women and children, in a continuous line, fleeing over a ridge to the pro- 14 216 - HISTORY OF OHIO. tection of the distant forest. The Indian warriors, in the display of unexpected military skill—which skill was probably taught them by British instructors in the art of war—immediately gathered in several strong block-houses. These were admirably arranged for defense, being impervious to bullets, supplied with loop-holes, and the ground around so cleared as to afford no protection whatever to an assailing foe. In an instant the whole aspect of affairs was changed. The Indians were in an impregnable position. To advance upon them was certain defeat and certain death. Colonel Logan, greatly chagrined, was compelled to order the immediate retreat of his men, that all the troops could be reunited to meet any assault which might be made upon them. The Indian warriors manifested great bravery. As soon as they caught sight of their foes, and saw them on the retreat, they emerged from their protecting walls, and, cautiously pursuing, kept up a constant fire upon the rear of the fugitives. The valiant Blackfish led this band of warriors. The result of the conflict might have been still more fatal than it was, had not a chance bullet struck down the chief in instant death. The warriors were so disheartened by this calamity that they abandoned the pursuit, and returned to their fortress with the dead body of their chief. The colonists, having lost nine men in killed and one severely wounded, continued their flight all that day and the ensuing night, until they had placed the broad Ohio River between them and their foes. They then, chagrined and greatly dejected, continuing their retreat, returned to their homes. They had accomplished nothing, and the savages of the Little Miami were greatly elated by the repulse which they had effected. An instance of individual heroism and suffering which occurred about this time, and which is peculiarly illustrative of the nature of this warfare, may be recorded here. Colonel Boone had organized what might be called a corps of explorers, whose business it was to go out, two and two, in various directions through the wilderness, in search of indications of the approach of Indians. One of these explorers, Simon Kenton, was a very remarkable man, whose achievements as a pioneer and an Indian fighter, ever manifesting the most reckless and desperate bravery, had already acquired for him much renown. He had fled from seri- HISTORY OF OHIO - 217 ous difficulties, on the other side of the mountains, to the haunts of the savages, and seemed to set but very little value upon his 'own life. He erroneously thought that, in a quarrel, he had killed a rival lover. In grief and despair he fled from civilization. But 'the wounded man recovered, though he knew it not. He subsequently became, we trust, a true disciple of Jesus Christ, and was one of the prominent actors in laying the foundations of the noble State of Kentucky. It would be difficult for the imagination of any romancer to 'create a tale more full of wild and wondrous adventure than is to be found in the career of this man. Simon was a boy of but sixteen years of age when he had a quarrel with another young man, 'by the name of Veach, who was his rival in love. They met, and, after a few words of altercation, had a pitched battle. Simon threw his antagonist to the ground and kicked him in the breast. Veach vomited blood and fainted away. Simon, terrified, raised him in his arms and spoke kindly to him. But receiving no answer, and seeing Veach apparently lifeless, he thought that he was dead. Overwhelmed with grief and remorse, the poor boy fled into the forest, directing his steps to the wildest fastnesses of the Alleghanies. Ever apprehensive that the officers of justice were after him, he concealed himself by day and traveled by night. Veach, however, soon recovered, having received no serious harm. At length, after innumerable and wonderful adventures, young Kenton reached Fort Pitt in rags and almost starved. Here he took the name of Simon Butler, and was employed as hunter for the fort. He soon recovered equanimity of mind, and, in the congenial employment in which he was then engaged, passed, as he ever afterwards said, the happiest period of his life. He was in perfect health, was blest with a very robust constitution, which gave him great strength and agility, and he found the streams abounding with fish, and the forests and meadows alive with game. Here he spent his time in that happy state of busy idleness which is the great glory of the hunter's life. One cold evening in the month of March, Kenton and two companions had encamped for the night on the bank of the Kanawha River. They had built a rousing fire, had cooked their supper of the most delicious bits of game, and wrapped in bear-skin robes, which were impervious to the cold, they were in the enjoy-. 218 - HISTORY OF OHIO. ment, for them, of about as much luxurious indulgence as can be found in this world. The crackling of the fire was music to their ears. Its flame illumined the flowing river and the sublime forest far and wide. Suddenly the sharp crack of a rifle was heard, which laid one of their number still in death, while the yell of a small band of savages, rushing upon them, echoed through the forest. Kenton and his surviving companion fled like deer, abandoning everything, without even time to catch their rifles. It was, as we have said, the cold and cheerless month of March. They had no means of building a fire ; they could take no game; there were no berries. For six days and nights they wandered through the forest, barely sustaining life on a few roots. At length they reached the Ohio River so enfeebled, so near death, that for the last two days they had been able to travel but one mile each day. Here, fortunately, they met a party of hunters descending the Ohio River, by whom they were rescued. During Lord Dunmore's war, Simon Kenton accompanied the expedition, discharging the difficult and very perilous office of a spy and scout. Upon his return from the war, he set out on a solitary hunting expedition, in the valley of the Elkhorn, one of the tributaries of the Kentucky River. This was, as he supposed, in the very heart of an unpeopled wilderness. One companion only, whose name was Williams, accompanied him. They descended. the Ohio River to the present site of Maysville, and there struck directly across the country, a hundred and fifty miles, in a southwest direction, till they reached the valley of this lonely stream, which valley a white man's foot had never trodden, and which the Indian, even, had rarely visited. Here, in this utter silence and loneliness, these strange adventurers, enamored with the solitude of the forest, reared a log hut. They found a green and treeless lawn of a few acres, with a sunny exposure, surrounded by the forest. The crystal stream flowed gently in front of their door. It was the elysium for a hermit. There was fish in the stream,' and all kinds of game in their magnificent park. The softly tanned skin of the deer supplied them with every article of clothing, which their own hands easily manufactured. A full supply of fur robes, furnished them with a couch for the night. They probably had one or two horses with them, to convey the necessary 220 - HISTORY OF OHIO. camp equipage, for this was the almost invariable custom of the hunter. In the rich pastures of Kentucky the animals would grow fat. With their tomahawks they cut through the sods, and planted their corn. Soon they had the pleasure of seeing the field waving with this most beautiful of growths. They wanted for nothing. Dressed in the Indian costume, with skin browned by exposure, no one could easily distinguish them from the Indians. Indeed it had become the custom of these hunters, as a precaution against sudden attack, to assume, in full, the disguise of the savage dress. One day Kenton had gone out alone, some miles from the hut, in pursuit of game, when suddenly, in the dense forest, which was free from under-brush, he came upon apparently an Indian, within. half rifle shot. Kenton sprang instantly behind a tree for protection. The savage did the same. There they stood, for sometime,. peering at each other, and each attempting, by all the arts of Indian maneuvering, to draw the other's fire. Should one discharge his rifle, without striking his antagonist, the other could easily rush from his covert and shoot him down before he had time to. reload. At length Kenton's antagonist, who was also a white hunter, in the disguise of an Indian, perceived something in the movement of his foe, which led him to suspect that he might also be in disguise. This led him to shout from his covert, " For God's sake, if you are a white man, speak." An explanation ensued, and the stranger introduced himself as Michael Stoner, of North. Carolina. He accompanied Kenton to his hut, where he spent several days in the enjoyment of its profuse hospitality. It seems that Kenton was entirely unacquainted with the little settlement at Boonesborough, which was about one hundred miles southeast from him, far up the Kentucky River. He had supposed that he and Williams were the only settlers in Kentucky. Stoner conducted Kenton to Boonesborough, and introduced him to the heroic Daniel Boone. After a short visit Kenton returned to his hut, on the Elkhorn, where he had left his companion. Here a sad spectacle was presented to him. The Indians had been there ; his but was in ashes ; all its contents had disappeared. Near by there was a stake driven firmly into the ground, surrounded by blackened brands ; and charred bones were found HISTORY OF OHIO - 221 among the ashes. This revealed too plainly the awful fate of Williams. Kenton immediately hastened back to Boonesborough, attaching himself to a small band of settlers, who were forming a station at Harrodsburgh. Here he was actively employed as hunter and as ranger, to give warning of the approach of Indians. He had then but just attained the age of full manhood, and is described as remarkably graceful in form and handsome in features. He was over six feet tall, with light hair, a soft blue eye, and with a smile really fascinating. He was capable of the most astonishing endurance. Not long after he repaired to Boonesborough, and became connected, as friend and companion, with Daniel Boone— a congenial spirit. One morning in 1778, Kenton and a companion were leaving the fort on a hunting excursion. Just then two men, who had gone into a field, at a little distance from the fort, to drive in some horses, were attacked by five Indians. The men fled, and were hotly pursued. The savages, in the eagerness of the chase, probably did not perceive Kenton, who was partially concealed behind tall grass and shrubs. One of them overtook one of the white men, struck him down with his tomahawk, and, uttering a triumphant yell, was just beginning to scalp him, when a bullet from Kenton's rifle pierced his heart, and he fell dead. The four, witnessing the fate of their leading warrior, turned on their heels in precipitate flight. Daniel Boone, always on the alert, had already emerged from the gate of the little fortress, at the head of ten men, and with Kenton and his companion, entered into a full pursuit of the savages. But they soon found that the forest was full of the foes. Kenton saw an Indian from behind a tree taking deliberate aim at Colonel Boone. Quick as flash Kenton's rifle was discharged, and the savage dropped dead. He had saved Boone's life. Boone gratefully bowed his acknowledgments. Just then, not a little to their dismay, they heard the yell of a large band of Indians, who had rushed between them and the fort, to cut off their retreat. Their peril was extreme. Their only possible hope was in a desperate charge through the savages. Boone gave orders for every man to take deliberate aim, so that each should be sure to bring down some one of their warriors, and then to dash through the band with clubbed guns, and reach the 222 - HISTORY OF OHIO. fort, if possible. Again it was Kenton's fortune to save his commander's life. The bullet of an Indian broke Boone's leg, and he was helpless. Kenton, with gigantic strength, grasped Boone in his arms, as if he were a child, and rushed with him into the fort. All escaped, though of the twelve seven were seriously, though none mortally, wounded. Not long after this event, Kenton and two other men, Montgomery and Clarke, were sent across the Ohio River to ascend the Valley of the Little Miami, to spy out the condition of the Indians there, and to report if they were preparing for any military expedition. Colonel Bowman had been sent from beyond the mountains, with a hundred and forty men, to protect the feeble settlements in Kentucky. Under his orders Kenton and his companions were acting. They reached the Ohio River, and succeeded in crossing the broad and rapid flood unseen. Stealthily they crept through the forest by night, concealing themselves by day, until they reached Old Chillicothe. Here they found in an enclosure, just outside of the town, seven well-fed and fine horses. They each mounted an animal, and, not willing to leave any behind, which might aid the Indians in pursuit, by hastily constructed halters led the rest. The tramp of the animals reached the quick ear of the Indians, and soon the whole town was in an uproar. The bold adventurers dashed down the valley at their utmost speed. Thus they drove on through the whole of the remainder of the night, the next day, and the next night. On the morning of the second day they reached the Ohio River, and there the majestic flood rolled before them, its beauty being lost in its grandeur. A fierce gale was blowing, and the surface of the stream was lashed into angry waves. It was not possible for the horses to swim the stream in so boisterous a wind. Anxious to retain animals so valuable, and thinking they had got so much the start of the Indians that they could not be speedily overtaken, they very imprudently decided to remain on the northern bank till evening, trusting that the gale would abate with the setting sun. But instead of this, as night came on, the storm raged with increasing fury. The next morning, Kenton, who chanced to be separated a short distance from his two companions, saw three Indians and one white man, all well mounted, close upon him. He instantly raised his rifle, took aim at the breast of the foremost Indian, and HISTORY OF OHIO - 223 pulled the trigger. The powder flashed in the pan. He then endeavored to escape by flight, but was speedily overtaken and captured. The savages seemed greatly exasperated by the loss of their horses. One of them seized him by the hair and shook him " till his teeth rattled." With the utmost scorn he exclaimed, " You horse thief." The others cut switches, and, with savage mercilessness, scourged him over the head and face, crying out at every blow, " You steal our horses, hey ? you steal our horses ? " Just then Kenton saw his companion, Montgomery, running boldly to his aid. Two Indians discharged their rifles at him, and he fell dead. Probably he sought this death, as his only refuge from torture. He was instantly scalped, and the savages slapped the face of Kenton with the bloody trophy. Clarke, unseen by the Indians, plunged into the forest and escaped. The captors threw their victim, with great violence, to the ground. Placing him upon his back, they fastened his neck strongly to a sapling. His arms, extended to their full length, were bound to stakes, and his feet were pinioned in the same manner. A stout stick was then passed across his breast, and was firmly bound to stakes. Thus fettered, he could scarcely move a muscle of his body. All this was done in the most cruel manner, interspersed with kicks and cuffs. The vagabond Indians had learned many of the white man's oaths. Kenton was assailed with a shower of these oaths, attached to the words, in broken English, of " tief," " rascal," " hoss tief." Thus bound, and in the endurance of cruel suffering, the unfortunate man passed all that day and the next night. The ensuing morning, the Indians, having collected the scattered horses, commenced their return up the Valley of the Little Miami. They placed their prisoner on a spirited colt, bound his feet under the horse's belly, and tied his hands firmly behind him. The country was rough, with many thickets and brambles. Kenton could do nothing to protect himself. The savages took pleasure in driving the horse through those places where the flesh of their victim would be most severely lacerated. When night came, Kenton was again bound to the earth as before. The next day they reached the village of Old Chillicothe. As they were drawing near, a courier was sent forward to announce their approach. The whole village—men, women and children—came rushing out to meet them. The renowned chief Blackfish. 224 - HISTORY OF OHIO. was there. He came to Kenton with a stout hickory stick, and angrily said : " You have been stealing our horses, have you ? " Kenton, all helpless as he was, knowing that the only way of securing any respect from the savage was to assume a bold air, defiantly replied, " Yes, I have.' " Did Colonel Boone," inquired the chief, " tell you to steal our horses ? " " No ! " Kenton replied. " I did it on my own account." The savage then assailed him with the utmost ferocity, beating him over the head so that the blood streamed down his body. In the meantime the whole crowd was dancing around him with yells of rage. A stake was planted in the ground. He was bound to it without clothing. All united then — men, women and children. — in the torture. We are told in the Bible that God created man in his own image, but little lower than the angels. Fallen man has indeed descended to a very low estate. Demons from the pit could not have been worse than were these savages. We will not describe the torture. It was loathsome and horrible. The Indian women were prominent in acting the part of incarnate fiends. The wretched victim was kept at the stake till midnight. Wishing to prolong his sufferings, they were very careful not to pierce any vital point. Fainting and bleeding, he was carefully guarded in a but through the night. The next morning he was led out to run the gauntlet. This was one of the principal amusements of the Indians with their captives. Three hundred Indians, of all ages and both sexes, were ranged in two parallel lines, about six feet apart. They were all armed with sticks sufficiently stout to give painful but not deadly blows. These lines extended nearly half a mile. Kenton was to run between them while every one struck him, with all his force, in the face, over the head, or wherever he could inflict a blow. If he could thus reach what was called the council-house alive, it would prove to him, for a little time, an asylum. At a given signal Kenton started. He ran for some distance, receiving terrible blows, when he saw, just before him, a savage with a gleaming knife in his hand. The plunge of that knife, or a severe cut from it, would be certain death. He broke through the line, and, pursued by the whole yelling crowd, rushed for the HISTORY OF OHIO - 225 council-house. A burly savage intercepted him, and threw him, in his exhaustion, to the ground. Here they all beset him with blows and kicks and he was left apparently lifeless. A few hours afterwards he partially revived, and some one brought him food and water. He was taken to a but where, under his marvelous strength of constitution, he slowly recuperated. The Indians then held a council and decided to burn him at the stake. They fixed the place of execution farther up the valley, at an Indian village called Wappatomica, upon the present site of Zanesville, in Logan County, Ohio. At this point there was a British trading post, and here the captive met a friend of former years, the Tory, Simon Girty, who was now, by adoption, an Indian chief. Girty had come, as policy compelled him to do, with swarms of Indians, to witness the torture of the doomed captive. In the mangled condition of Kenton, Girty did not at first recognize him. But as soon as Kenton made himself known, even the hard heart of Girty was touched with compassion. He interceded for his old friend, urging upon the Indians the policy of preserving the life of one who might join them, and who was so intimately acquainted with all the white settlements. His plea was unavailing, though he obtained a respite and a removal of the prisoner to Sandusky. The celebrated Indian chief Logan, " the friend of white men," chanced to be there. He interceded with a British officer, Captain Dwyer, in behalf of Kenton, representing that the prisoner would be of great value to the Governor, at Detroit, in giving him information respecting the location of the colonial settlements and the strength of the garrisons. He represented to the Indians that, by taking Kenton to Detroit, they could get a large ransom for him. For once, avarice prevailed over the love of revenge. Kenton was taken to Detroit, where the commandant paid one hundred dollars for his ransom, and held him as a prisoner of war. Though humanely treated he was carefully guarded. At length he effected his escape through the friendly aid of Mrs. Harvey, the wife of one of the British traders of Detroit. It was the 3d of June, 1779, when Kenton, with two fellow prisoners from Kentucky, commenced their long and perilous flight through the wilderness to the settlements on the Kentucky River. Mrs. Harvey had secretly concealed for them, in the hollow of a tree, powder, lead, moccasins and a quantity of dried beef. 15 226 - HISTORY OF OHIO One dark and stormy night she met Kenton in the garden, and „gave him three excellent rifles, which she had selected from some stacked near the house. To avoid the hostile bands, who were ever traversing the much-frequented .route between Detroit and Kentucky, the fugitives took a very circuitous route, down the Valley of the Wabash, in the present State of Indiana. They pursued their lonely journey on foot, depending upon their rifles for sustenance. For thirty-three days they did not see the face of another human being. They then reached the Falls of the Ohio in safety. From this time to the close of the war, Simon Kenton was the inveterate foe of the Indian race. He was never able to forget his wrongs, and was always eager to join in any expedition against those from whom he had suffered so much. He was engaged in many a bloody fight, and the savages often felt the weight of his avenging hand. Upon the conclusion of peace he retired to his farm, near Washington, in Mason County, Virginia. Here he became much endeared to the whole community for his gentle virtues, his warm affections, and his unbounded hospitality. He supposed himself to be quite wealthy ; in the possession of large landed estates, and many cattle and horses, and domestic stock of various kinds. He was thus in the enjoyment of a green old .age when a new storm darkened his path. Ignorant of the technicalities of the law and the intricacies of land titles, he found, to his surprise and grief, that he had no valid title to the lands he claimed. He was nearly fifty years of age. One suit after another was decided against him, and he was reduced to absolute poverty. In the year 1802 he moved across the Ohio River into the region then called the Northwestern Territory, and took up his residence at Urbana, many miles above the head-waters of the Little Miami. This region had then been but just reclaimed from the savages. It was far in advance of any of the footsteps of civilization. But Kenton was keenly wounded in his feelings by the unjust treatment which he thought he had received. He felt that he was driven from the land which he had defended against the savages, and for which he had shed his blood and endured the most dreadful tortures. In his poverty he preferred the solitudes of the wilderness to the more busy haunts of civilized men. Though poor, and retiring in his habits, he was highly HISTORY OF OHIO - 227 esteemed as a useful member of the slowly growing community. He was subsequently chosen brigadier general in the new military organization of the state. In the year 1810 he found repose, after his stormy life, in the bosom of the Methodist Episcopal Church. He continued a consistent and beloved member of that communion until his death. In 182o he removed to the head of Mad River, in Logan County, near the site of the old Indian town Wappatomica. This was one of the places where he had encountered, in the year 1779, all the horrors of Indian torture. Here he reared his humble cabin in the midst of a beautiful beech grove. His few wants were mainly supplied by a pension from the Federal Government of twenty dollars a month. The peaceful evening of his life passed tranquilly away in humble poverty, though free from actual want. On the 24th of June he fell asleep in Jesus. "Peaceful sleep, From which none ever wake to weep." " Thus died," writes McDonald, " Gen. Simon Kenton, in the eighty-second year of his age; a man who, as a western pioneer, passed through more dangers, privations, perils and hair-breadth escapes than any man living or dead; a man whose iron nerve never quailed before danger, and whose patriotism warmed up the evening of his life. After a long life devoted to his country, having passed through a thousand dangers, and having outlived the sufferings of half a dozen deaths, he was permitted to die quietly in his bed at home, in peace and resignation, in the midst of a flourishing settlement, where once was the center of the Indian power. His bones repose within the bosom of the state which sheltered and protected his declining age, and well does Ohio deserve to retain them." CHAPTER XII. MASSACRE ON THE TUSCARAWAS AND DEFEAT ON THE SANDUSKY. CIVILIZATION OF THE TUSCARAWAS - INIQUITOUS PROCEEDINGS OF THE COLONISTS AGAINST THE CHRISTIAN INDIANS - ACCOUNTS OF THE HORRIBLE MASSACRE - FURTHER CRUELTIES OF WILLIAMSON - EXPEDITION AGAINST THE WYANDOTS - LOGAN'S SPRING - INTERESTING ANECDOTE - CAPTAIN MAC-LAY AND HIS WAGER LOVELY CHARACTER OF LOGAN HIS ADDRESS IN COUNCIL REASON FOR HIS CHANGE OF FEELING - MARCH OF VENGEANCE - DISAPPOINTMENT OF WILLIAMSON'S PARTY - FIERCE BATTLE - COLONEL CRAWFORD AND DR. KNIGHT CAPTURED - REMARKABLE CONVERSATION BETWEEN COLONEL CRAWFORD AND THE WYANDOT CHIEF- EMIGRATION. THE UTTER devastation of the valley of the Little Miami, which we described in the last chapter, took place in the autumn of 1782. Pittsburgh was at this time the headquarters of all the Colonial operations in the western wilderness. As the Indians in Ohio had so generally enlisted under the banners of Great Britain, and were committing such awful cruelties, the Colonists had begun to regard an Indian as a foe, to be shot down at sight, making but little discrimination between a friendly and a hostile savage. The tribes on the Maumee and the Sandusky, in the immediate vicinity of Detroit, were prompt in their obedience to the authorities there. But those on the upper branches of the Muskingum river, called Tuscarawas, being near Pittsburgh, were so influenced by the friendly treatment they received from the Colonists there, that they persistently refused all the solicitations of the British agents, and all entreaties of the Indian tribes, to join them in their warfare against the Americans. They persisted in a friendly neutrality, holding constantly amicable relations with the Americans at Pittsburgh. It will be remembered that White Eyes was one of HISTORY OF OHIO - 229 the leading chiefs of this tribe. These Indians had made decidedly greater advances in the direction of civilization than any of the other tribes. They had three quite important towns, in each of which the Moravian Christians had established quite successful missionary stations. They were all situated upon a pleasant tributary of the Muskingum, called Tuscarawas. The first of these villages, Schoenburn, was about two miles south of the present site of New Philadelphia. Seven miles further south was the peaceful little Village of Gnadenhutten, with its Christian preachers, its church, its schools, and its congregation, just emerging from the savage state. Five miles farther down the stream was the little town of Salem, on the western banks, as was also the upper town of Schoenburn. It was with great difficulty, as we have already seen, that these Indians had been enabled to preserve their neutrality, against the powerful influence which was brought to bear upon them. In the Autumn of the year 1781, an English officer from Detroit, Colonel Elliott, accompanied by two chiefs from the Sandusky River, and three hundred of their savage warriors, visited Gnadenhutten to persuade or compel them to join the British alliance. By means of threats and bribes, and actual violence, they succeeded in carrying off most of the able-bodied Indians to the distant home of the hostile tribes on the Sandusky. It was probably hoped that when brought so near the powerful influence of Detroit, they might be led to join the Wyandots in their bloody forays. On the other hand it was feared, that being left so near Pittsburgh, and influenced by their Christian teachers, they might be induced to embark in the cause of the colonists. These tribes were thus compelled to leave their corn in the fields, their potatoes in the ground, and the vegetables in their gardens, while they accompanied their unwelcome visitors in a weary tramp to the distant banks of the Sandusky. The Christian missionaries were also taken prisoners and carried to Detroit. These captive Indians taken from the three villages were most of them Christians. They passed the Winter of 1781 in great destitution and suffering. Early in February, 1782, a hundred and fifty of them, including many women and children, were permitted to return to the Tuscarawas, to gather in the abandoned crop. They divided into three parties, so as to work at the three towns in harvesting the corn. About the time of their arrival, there had 230 - HISTORY OF OHIO. been several very atrocious burnings, murderings and scalping, committed on the upper waters of the Ohio and the Monongahela, by the hostile Indians. The settlers around Pittsburgh believed, or affected to believe, that these depredations had been perpetrated by the Tuscarawas, or by hostile Indians whom they allowed to find shelter in their towns. They knew of the visit which the Wyandots had paid this tribe, but criminally they had not informed themselves of the fidelity with which the Tuscarawas had repelled all the threats and bribes addressed to them. It was therefore decided that these villages were dangerous to the frontier settlements, and must be destroyed. A corps of a hundred mounted men was raised to perform the iniquitous and cruel deed. Each man furnished himself with his own arms, ammunition and provisions, with two horses, one to ride and the other to be led, and to be mounted in case of necessity. The soldiers for this fatal expedition were rendezvoused in what is called the Mingo Bottom, on the west side of the Ohio River, which stream here runs almost directly south. After a rapid march of two days they reached Gnadenhutten late in the afternoon of the 5th of March, and encamped at a. little distance from the village. Early the next morning they entered the village, and found most of the Indians gathering corn in the fields on the west banks of the river. Sixteen of Williamson's men crossed the river in a rude boat which they found upon the banks. They went strongly armed. They found the Indians in the field much more numerous than they expected. As usual they had their guns with them for protection and to take game. They either knew before, or soon ascertained, that the Tuscarawas were annoyed and not a little exasperated by their compulsory visit to the Sandusky. The whites approached them kindly, sympathized with them in their wrongs, and told them they had come as friends to protect them. They assured them that it.had come to their knowledge that the British at Detroit, with their Indian allies, were about to repeat the outrage, and with still greater indignities ; and that they therefore had been sent by the friends of the Tuscarawas at Fort Pitt to convey them to Pittsburgh, where they would find ample protection. The simple-hearted Indians had no reason to disbelieve this statement. Many of them had previously visited the fort, where they had always been received with the greatest kindness. HISTORY OF OHIO - 233 Under these circumstances, the Indians at once placed themselves under the protection of their newly-arrived friends. One of their number was dispatched down the river to inform the Indians there of the arrangement, and to request them to repair immediately to Gnadenhutten. Colonel Williamson and his perfidious crew accompanied their duped victims across the river. Here without difficulty they obtained possession of their guns, and then having decoyed them into two houses, shut them in, and carefully guarded them as prisoners. They then sent a party of armed men down the river to the Salem Village. The Indians had already commenced in a body the movement to join their brethren, and were met on the road. The same vile arts which' already had been so successfully practiced, were again adopted to disarm and decoy their victims. They soon found themselves prisoners ; the men shut up in one house, the women and children in another. The whole body of these miscreants, acting upon their own responsibility, without any governmental authority, then met, officers and men, in a council of war, to decide upon the fate of their captives. Colonel Williamson then put the question whether they should be carried as prisoners to Fort Pitt, or be put to death. He requested all who were in favor of sparing their lives to step out from the general ranks, and form a second line. There were only eighteen to be found who were in favor of that little mercy. The remainder, eighty-two in number, clamored for immediate death. In a very interesting history of the Moravian Mission there, written by James Patrick, Esq., of New Philadelphia, we find the following graphic account of the horrible scene which ensued : " In the majority, which was large, no sympathy was manifested.. They resolved to murder—for no other word can express the act—the whole of the Christian Indians in their custody. Among these were several who had contributed to aid the missionaries in the work of conversion and civilization. Two of these had emigrated from New Jersey, after the death of their spiritual pastor, the Rev. David Brainerd. One woman, who could speak good English, knelt before the commander and begged his protection. The supplication was unavailing. They were ordered to prepare for death. But the warning had been anticipated. Their firm belief in their new creed was shown forth in this sad hour of their tribulation, by religious exercises of preparation. The orisons of 15 234 - HISTORY OF OHIO. these devoted people were already ascending to the Throne of the Most High. The sound of the Christian's hymn and the Christian's prayer found an echo in the surrounding woods, but no responsive feeling in the bosoms of their executioners. With gun, and spear, and tomahawk, and scalping-knife, the work of death progressed in these slaughter-houses, till not a sigh or moan was heard to proclaim the existence of human life within. All perished save two. Two Indian boys escaped as if by a miracle, to be witnesses in after times of the savage cruelty of the white man towards their unfortunate race." After committing this barbarous act, when the gory bodies of the slain lay in heaps in the dwellings where they had been slaughtered, Williamson and his gang of assassins set fire to the buildings. The roaring conflagration consuming these huts of massive logs became the funeral pyre of the dead, consuming flesh and bones, so that no marks of the atrocious deed remained but undistinguishable ashes. The wretches then commenced their march up the river to Schoenburn to perpetrate the same enormities there. But the news of their fiend-like deed had preceded them, and the Indians in precipitate flight had escaped beyond pursuit. These savage white men took their revenge by plundering and destroying the village. Thus the fruits of ten years' labor of Christian missionaries was brought to a cruel end. The precepts of Christianity inculcated by these disciples of Jesus had ennobled many of their natures, and prepared them, we trust, for the companionship of angels in Heaven. Dr. Doddridge touchingly writes : " They anticipated their doom, and had commenced their devotions with hymns, prayers, and exhortations to each other to place a firm reliance upon the mercy of the Saviour of men. When their fate was announced to them, these devoted people embraced and kissed each other, and bedewing each other's faces and bosoms with their tears, asked pardon of the brothers and the sisters for any offense they might have committed through life. Thus at peace with God and each other, they replied to those who, impatient for the slaughter, demanded whether they were ready to die, " that having commended their souls to God, they were ready to die." The whole number slain amounted to ninety-six. Of these, sixty-two were grown persons, of whom one-third were women. HISTORY OF OHIO - 235 The remaining thirty-four were children. A few of the men who were supposed to be warriors, were taken from the slaughter houses and had their skulls split open with a tomahawk in the field. These generally knelt down and submitted to the execution without resistance. One only attempted to escape ; five bullets were immediately shot through his body, and he fell dead. One would have thought that the atrocious massacre would have satiated the revengeful spirits of those American Colonists who had perpetrated it ; but it seems only to have stimulated their appetite for blood. It will be remembered that more than one-half of the Indians from these Moravian settlements, on the Tuscarawas, were in a sort of captivity to the British savages far away on the banks of the Sandusky. The "Indians also from Schoenburn, the upper Moravian town, had escaped and fled to join their companions on these remote waters. Immediately an expedition was fitted out to pursue and destroy them, together with the whole body of hostile Wyandots in the Valley of the Sandusky. Four hundred and eighty volunteers were immediately raised for a rapid and secret march to the Sandusky towns. Every man was to furnish himself with arms, the very best horses that could be procured, and every necessary outfit excepting ammunition, which was furnished them by the Lieutenant Colonel of Washington County, Pennsylvania. Thus this movement assumed much more the character of a governmental expedition than did the former. Indeed an assault upon the Wyandots of Sandusky, who were the active allies of Great Britain, was a legitimate operation. And it was not unnatural for them to assume that the Tuscarawas had voluntarily gone to join them in their merciless warfare against the colonists. The little but very efficient army mustered at an old Indian town on the west side of the Ohio River, about seventy-five miles below Fort Pitt, and very near the present site of Steubenville. This town was the central one of a little cluster of Indian villages, belonging to the Mingo Tribe, of which the celebrated Logan was chief. There is quite a remarkable spring there, which still retains the name of Logan's Spring. The following anecdote respecting this distinguished chieftain, is related by William Brown, one of the pioneer settlers in that region. It is worthy of record here, as illustrative of the region, of the chief, and of the times. The first time I ever saw that spring, my brother, a man by the 236 - HISTORY OF OHIO. name of James Reed and myself, had wandered out of the valley in search of land ; and finding it very good we were looking about for springs. About a mile from this we started a bear and separated to get a shot at him. I was traveling along, looking about on the rising ground for the bear, when I came suddenly upon the spring. Being dry and more rejoiced to find a spring than to have killed a dozen bears, I set my rifle against a bush, and rushed down the bank and laid down to drink. Upon putting my head down I saw reflected in the water on the opposite side, the shadow of a tall Indian. I sprang for my rifle, when the Indian gave a yell, whether for peace or war, I was not just then sufficient master of my faculties to determine. Upon my seizing my rifle and facing him, he knocked up the pan of his gun, threw out the priming and extended his open palm in token of friendship. After putting down our guns we met at the spring, and shook hands. This was Logan, the best specimen of humanity I ever met with, either white or red. He could speak a little English, and told me there was another white hunter a little way down the stream, and offered to guide me to his camp. Mr. Brown soon visited Logan at his lodge. Here the chief and a white man named Maclay amused themselves in the customary sport of the frontier in shooting at a mark, upon the wager of one dollar a shot. The white man beat, and Logan lost five dollars. He went into the lodge and brought out five deer skins, which were valued at a dollar a-piece, and gave them in payment of his forfeiture. Mr. Maclay declined receiving them, saying : " I am your guest. We have shot merely for amusement. I did not come here to plunder you. We wished to try our skill, and the bet was merely nominal." The proud chief straightened himself up and said : " No ! me bet to make you shoot your best. Me gentleman, if me beat me take your dollar." Mr. Maclay found himself obliged to take the skins. And Logan would not even accept from him the present of a horn of powder, lest it should detract from the honest fulfillment of his engagement. Mr. Brown who relates these anecdotes—and who subsequently became a distinguished citizen of that region, as Judge Brown—had a daughter, Mrs. Norris. She relates the following interesting incident in reference to this remarkable Indian chieftain. Mrs. Norris had a little sister who was just beginning to learn HISTORY OF OHIO - 237 to walk. But there were no shoes for the child, and far away in their wilderness home none could be purchased. Logan was one day at the but an honored guest, and as he, with a smile, watched the toddling steps of the barefooted child, who knew and loved him, he begged Mrs. Brown to let the little girl go up with him and spend the day at his cabin. The child whom he had often caressed, threw her little arms around his neck, and was all ready to go. But the cautious mother was alarmed at the proposition. She knew the sensitiveness of Logan's feelings, and how deeply he would be wounded by the slightest intimation that they distrusted his fidelity. She therefore with assumed cheerfulness, but with real reluctance, consented to the arrangement. The hours of the day wore away very slowly to her, and the sun was setting, and yet her little one had not been brought back. Just then she saw the noble chief coming down the path with the child fondly folded in his arms. He placed her on the floor at the door, and the little one trotted to her mother in great glee, pointing to a beautiful pair of ornamented moccasins, on her little feet, which the chief had made for her with his own hands. This was Logan, the friend of the white man. We have before alluded to the circumstances which led Logan to raise his arm against his former friends. A gentleman, Judge Henry Jolly, of Washington County, Pennsylvania, was near the place of the atrocious massacre of the Indians by a band of vagabond white men, which roused the vengeance of Logan. He gives the following very interesting account of the meeting of Indians in council, at Mingo, to deliberate upon the measures to be pursued in relation to that massacre, which took place but seventeen miles farther up the river. The Indians had for some time been aggrieved by the cruelties practiced upon them by the long knives. In the council which was convened, many of them earnestly advocated war. But Logan, who was the principal chief, and who had great influence among them in consequence of his moral worth, his bravery and his intelligence, argued for peace. " I admit," he said, " the justice of our complaints. We have ample cause for war. But let us not forget that not a few outrages have been inflicted upon them by our people. If we engage in war, we can only harass for a short time the few settlements scattered along the frontier. The Long Knives will come over 238 - HISTORY OF OHIO. the mountains upon us, in numbers like the trees of the forest.. We shall ultimately be vanquished, and all be driven from our pleasant hunting grounds." The Indians, though much exasperated, were influenced by these cogent arguments. They all agreed to continue in peace, and to the burial of the tomahawk. -Just then an Indian runner came in, with the tidings that the massacre at the mouth of the Yellow Creek and of the Indians who had been pursued, was far more dreadful than they had at first apprehended. Among the number included in the assassination, were the father, brother and sister of Logan. They were the nearest and dearest of his friends. There was no longer any resisting the clamor for war. Logan grew pale. He raised his tomahawk and solemnly declared that he would never lay it down till he had avenged the spirits of his butchered relatives, by the slaughter of ten white men for every one of those who had been slain. He redeemed his pledge. It is said that during that Summer, which was of the year 1774, thirty white men fell pierced by his bullet, or struck down by the arm of Logan. It was from this Logantown-of-Mingo, that on the twenty-fifth day of March, 1783, the army of nearly five hundred men were ready for the march, for the Valley of the Sandusky. It was a long journey of more than three hundred miles, through an almost pathless wilderness, and a fortnight of very efficient movement was spent in accomplishing it. Colonel Williamson accompanied the expedition as a subordinate officer. Five hundred mounted men, with five hundred pack horses, formed in that day a very imposing army. The narrow Indian trail was often very difficult for a horse's foot to tread, and often they advanced very slowly; a long line in single file. They first struck directly across the country west, a distance of about thirty miles to the deserted Moravian villages on the Tuscarawas, following what they called Williamson's trail. There they found in the midst of the awful desolation the ungathered harvest of golden corn still in the fields. Here they encamped for the night, feeding their steeds abundantly with the rich forage. Individuals of their band affixed to the trees the declaration that they were on a march of vengeance ; that they should show no quarter ; that every Indian man, woman and child they encountered would be put to death. HISTORY OF OHIO - 239 They reached one of the upper branches of the Sandusky River, which stream it will be remembered flows from the south to the north, entering Lake Erie at Sandusky Bay. Their first object was to attack and destroy the Moravian village, which had been gathered there, some fifty miles south of the mouth of the river. But the fugitives there had either heard of the march of the army, or from some other unknown cause, had entirely abandoned their village, and retired some thirty or forty miles south to the upper waters of the Scioto. Nothing was found there but desolation. The officers of the invading army held a council of war to decide upon the next step best to be pursued. The Valley of the Sandusky was densely populated with Indians. Their warriors were men of renown. They were near Detroit, from which point British officers could send them such supplies and reinforcements as they might need. Among the many villages scattered along the valley there were two quite important Indian towns ; the Upper and the Lower Sandusky. The Lower Town was but a few miles above the bay ; the Upper Town was about twenty miles farther south. The officers of the expedition began to be very nervous. Their position was truly alarming. The flight of the Tuscarawas, they then knew not where, indicated that their march was discovered. As no Indians were to be seen, it was apprehended' that, guided by British officers, and sustained by British reinforcements, they were assembling in overwhelming numbers farther down the valley. After much deliberation it was decided to continue one day's march farther, towards Upper Sandusky, which they could doubtless reach in that time. Should they find that town also deserted, it would confirm their fears of the general concentration of the foe, upon ground selected by themselves, and abundantly prepared for battle. Under those circumstances, early the next morning they cautiously recommenced their march. About two o'clock their advanced guard entered an extended undulating plain with clusters of forest trees scattered about, and with waving tall grass. Suddenly they were assailed by a very hot fire from an invisible but evidently numerous foe, concealed behind the trees and in the grass. The main body hurried forward to support its advance. It was soon found that all their bravery and skill would be called into requisition, and would be tasked to the utmost to meet the emergency. During all the 240 - HISTORY OF OHIO. hours of a long June afternoon, the battle raged incessantly till the sun sank beneath the horizon, and night enveloped the field. Both parties slept upon their arms. The scene presented during the night was very picturesque, and would have been beautiful had not the circumstances rendered it awful. Each party built along its line large camp fires to reveal the approach of any foe, while both of them retired to sleep at a distance from the fires, that they might not be surprised by a night attack. The next day the battle was not renewed by either party. The Indians seemed to be busy in removing their dead and caring for their wounded. They were also probably awaiting the arrival of large reinforcements hurrying to them from the lower part of the river. It was very apparent that every hour the Indians were increasing in number. Anxiously the colonial officers held a council of war. The prevailing voice was for a precipitate retreat. Colonel Williamson urged that he should be permitted to take a hundred and fifty picked men, advance rapidly down the valley to Lower Sandusky, the principal Indian town, and utterly destroy it. But Colonel Crawford replied " I have no doubt but that you might reach the town. You would, however, find nothing there but empty wigwams. Having taken away so many of our best men, you would leave the rest of us to be destroyed by the host of Indians now surrounding us. On your return they would attack and destroy you. They care nothing about defending their towns. Their wives, children and property, have been removed from them long ago. Our lives and baggage are what they want. If they can get us divided they will soon have them." The shrewd savages, or, more probably, their still shrewder British officers, perceived indications of preparations for a retreat. The wounded were to be removed on litters. The dead were buried, and large fires were built over their graves to prevent the savages from discovering or dishonoring their remains. About sundown, the Indians renewed the battle with great fury. They surrounded the army on all sides, excepting that leading down the valley. It was their evident intention to drive their foes in the direction of Lower Sandusky, as they would thus encounter the powerful band hurrying up the river, and would be placed between two fires. The next morning the retreat commenced. The troops were HISTORY OF OHIO - 241 so hemmed in that they could only retire by the road which the savages left open for them. But after marching about a mile in that direction, they wheeled about, and, by a circuitous route, gained the trail along which they had advanced. With very rapid steps they continued their flight during the day, being but slightly annoyed by attacks from the Indians. The savages followed them, however, occasionally firing shots at their rear guard, by which several men were seriously wounded. Night again came. The colonists built their camp fires, took their suppers, picketed their horses, and resigned themselves to repose without any molestation. It is said that the post of honor in a retreat is the rear, where the foe is generally encountered, to be driven back. Colonel Crawford was, however, leading the main body, when he learned that his son, his son-in-law, and two nephews, were missing. He accordingly halted, and allowed the long line of the army to pass by him as he searched the ranks to find his lost friends. They were not to be found. His weary horse then gave out, and he, being unable to keep up with the rest of the troops, was left behind. He was soon joined by six others of the inevitable stragglers of an army on the retreat, one of whom was severely wounded. But Indian bands were now coming down upon their trail from various directions, so that they were in imminent danger of being cut off. As night came, this little band, in great exhaustion, encamped together. The next morning, while their more fortunate companions were rapidly retreating, they were attacked by a party of Indians, who killed four of their number, and took Colonel Crawford and Dr. Knight prisoners. They were immediately taken to an Indian encampment, where they found nine others of their party in the hands of the savages. The colonel's son and son-in-law were among the captives. All the nine prisoners, including Colonel Crawford's son and son-in-law, were tomahawked and scalped. The colonel and the doctor, being deemed more conspicuous captives, were reserved for a more dreadful fate. The former was to be burned on the spot; the latter, firmly bound, was entrusted to the care of one powerful Indian, who was to convey him to an important Indian town, forty miles distant, where he was to be burned for the amusement of the savages there. Just before the execution of Crawford, a distinguished Wyan- 16 242 - HISTORY OF OHIO. dot chief by the name of Wingenund held a short interview with him. He had known the prisoner before, had visited at his house, and had been on friendly terms with him. The chief had retired to his cabin that he might not witness the horrible execution of his former friend. But the colonel sent for him, with the vague hope that he might be saved by his intercession. The Wyandot chief greatly agitated, entered the cabin of the doomed man, and inquired, with much embarassment : "Are you Colonel Crawford ?" " I am," was the reply. "Ah’l indeed, indeed ! " said the chief, sadly, " and is it so?" The colonel added : " Do you not recollect the friendship which has always existed between us ?" " Yes," was the reply, " I remember all this. We have often drank together, and you have ever been kind to me." " Then I hope the same friendship still continues," added the colonel. " It would, of course," said the chief, " if you were where you ought to be and not here." " And why not here ?" Colonel Crawford inquired. " I hope you would not desert a friend in time of need ! Now is the time for you to exert yourself in my behalf, as I should do for you, were you in my place." " Colonel Crawford," Wingenund replied, very solemnly, "you have placed yourself in a situation which puts it out of my power, and also of that of any of your friends, to do anything for you." " How so ?" the colonel inquired. " By joining yourself to that execrable man Williamson and his party — the man who, but the other day, murdered such a number of Moravian Indians, knowing them to be his friends; knowing also that he ran no risk in murdering a people who would not fight, and whose only business was praying." " But I assure you, Wingenund," said Crawford, " that had I been with him at the time, this would not have happened. Not I alone, but all your friends, and all good men, whoever they are, reprobate acts of this kind." " That may be," the chief responded ; " yet these friends, these good men, did not prevent him from going out again, to kill the remainder of these foolish Moravian Indians. I say foolish, because they believed the whites in preference to us. We had often HISTORY OF OHIO - 243 told them that they would one day be so treated by those people who called themselves their friends. We told them that there was no faith to be placed in what the white men said ; that their fair promises were only intended to allure us, that they might the more, easily kill us, as they had done many Indians before these Moravians." " I am sorry," Colonel Crawford added, " to hear you speak thus. As to Williamson's going out again, when it was determined on, I went out with him, to prevent his committing fresh murders." " This," said the chief, " the Indians would not believe were even I to tell them so." " Why," inquired Mr. Crawford, " would they not believe it ?" " Because," was the reply, " it would have been entirely out of your power to prevent him from doing whatever he pleased." "Why out of my power ?" inquired the colonel. " Have any of the Moravian Indians been killed or hurt since we came out here ?" " None," Wingenund answered. " But you first went to their towns on the Sandusky, and, finding them deserted, you turned. on your path towards us. If you had been in search of warriors only, you would not have gone to their deserted settlements. Our spies watched you closely. They saw you when you were mustering your forces on the other side of the Ohio River. They saw you cross the river. They saw where you encamped for the night. They saw you turn off from the direct path here, towards the deserted Moravian towns. They knew that you were going out of your way. Your steps were constantly watched, and you were suffered quietly to proceed, until you reached the spot where you. were attacked." Colonel Crawford was now in utter despair. He had no additional plea to present. In doleful accents he inquired : "And what do they intend to do with me ?" Wingenund replied, " I tell you with grief. As Williamson,, with his whole cowardly host, ran off in the night at the whistling of our warriors' balls, being satisfied that he had now no Moravians to deal with, but men who could fight—and with such he did not wish to have anything to do ; I say that, as he has escaped, and the Indians have taken you, they will take revenge on you in his, stead." 244 - HISTORY OF OHIO. " Is there no possibility," inquired Crawford, in anguish, " of preventing this ? Can you devise no way of getting me off? You shall, my friend, be well rewarded if you are instrumental in saving my life." " Had Williamson," the humane and intelligent chief rejoined, " been taken with you, I and some of my friends, by making use of what you have told me, might perhaps have succeeded in saving you. But, as the matter now stands, no man would dare to interfere in your behalf. The King of England himself, were he to come to this spot, with all his wealth and treasure, could not effect this purpose. The blood of the innocent Moravians, more than half of them women and children, cruelly and wantonly murdered, •calls loudly for revenge. The relatives of the slain, who are among us, cry out for vengeance, and stand ready to inflict it. All the nations connected with us cry out revenge! revenge! The Shawanese, our grand-children, have asked for your fellow prisoner, Dr. Knight, and on him they will take vengeance. The Moravians whom you went to destroy having fled, instead of avenging their murdered brethren, the offense is become national, and the nation itself is bound to revenge it." " My fate is then fixed," added Colonel Crawford, " and I may prepare to meet death in its most dreadful form." " I am sorry," the chief replied, " that I cannot do anything for you. Had you regarded the Indian principle, that as good and evil cannot dwell together in the same heart, so a good man ought not to go into evil company, you would not now be in this lamentable situation you see now, when it is too late, and after Williamson has deserted you, what a bad man he must be. Nothing now remains for you but to meet your fate like a brave man. Farewell, Colonel Crawford — they are coming I will retire to a solitary spot." As the noble chief left the room, with his eyes filled with tears, the savage warriors came in to lead their victim to his execution. The awful scene which ensued is minutely described by Dr. Knight, who was compelled to witness it all. It is too revolting to be transferred to these pages. The victim was bound to a stake, and for two hours was exposed to every variety of torture which the most demoniac ingenuity could devise. A throng of savages, men, women and boys were yelling their delight, as they vied with each other in their attempts to inflict the most exquisite torture. HISTORY OF OHIO - 245 At length welcome death came to the relief of the sufferer ; but not until the mangled remains had lost every vestige of humanity. Simon Girty, the Tory, was present at the execution, and it is said that he seemed to watch the progress of the awful spectacle with as much zest as the most ferocious of the savages. Colonel Crawford, in the extremity of his agony, implored Girty, with whom he was personally acquainted, to shoot him. There are same indications that Girty would have saved the captive if he could ; but his savage allies watched him jealously. Had he not assumed to be delighted with the execution, he would have drawn down upon his own head the same destruction which the captive was enduring. The spot where Crawford suffered was but a few miles west of Upper Sandusky. The next morning Dr. Knight was placed under the care of his Indian guard, to be conveyed to the Shawanese town where he was to suffer the same death of torture which he had just witnessed. They traveled that day twenty-five miles on foot. The gnats in the night were exceedingly annoying. The doctor persuaded the guide to loosen his bonds, that he might aid in building a fire to keep them off. The Indian complied with the request. While the savage was on his knees and elbows blowing the coals, Dr. Knight seized a club, and struck him over his head with all his strength, knocking him forward into the fire, but neither killing nor stunning him. The Indian, though severely hurt, sprang up, when the doctor seized his gun ; but in his agitation he pulled back the cock with such violence as to break it. The Indian, however, expecting instantly to be shot, plunged, with hideous yellings into the woods. Dr. Knight, with the useless gun in his hands to intimidate his. guard should he attempt to approach him, made the best of his way towards home. For twenty-one days he continued his flight through the wilderness, ever on the most careful watch lest he should encounter some wandering bands of his foes. All this. time he lived upon roots and berries, with occasionally young and unfledged birds which he found in their nests. About three hundred of the army kept together and were only slightly harassed, without being seriously attacked. Two hundred broke up in small parties, thinking that they could thus more easily conceal their trail and elude their foes. They perished almost to a man. Colonel Williamson reached his home in safety.. 246 - HISTORY OF OHIO. Colonel Crawford is described by those who know him as a humane and worthy man. He was one of the first emigrants to the West, and was in the dreadful defeat of Braddock, in his march to Fort Duquesne. Washington commended him as a brave and active officer. He was an active soldier in the Pontiac War, and accompanied Lord Dunmore in his expedition to the Scioto. It is enough to make one's blood curdle in his veins to think of his awful fate. In the month of April a Welsh family, of former opulence, emigrated from Beaufort, South Carolina, to the Ohio Valley. The father of the household was dead. The widowed mother was accompanied on her long journey by two sons and a daughter. The whole party of emigrants who left Beaufort together, large and small, amounted to seventy souls. In a small vessel, they ran along the coast to Alexandria, in Virginia. This was a period when emigration across the mountains was in full flood, and Alexandria was one of the principal starting points. The road across the mountains was exceedingly rough, being mainly intended for pack horses still, stout wagons could be dragged along. Here the party took wagons. There were log huts, called taverns, scattered along the route at the distance of fifteen or twenty miles from each other. A day's journey usually extended from tavern to tavern. These log huts could not accommodate with sleeping conveniences a large party. Many would sleep in their wagons, and cook their food on camp fires but they could generally, at these stations, find corn for their cattle, and meal and game if they needed such supplies. As they toiled along, several of their party became discouraged by the hardships which they encountered. Steep and rocky hills were to be climbed with the greatest difficulty. Mountain torrents were to be forded. Vast morasses they waded through — the wheels of their wagons sinking to their hubs in the mire. Some began to doubt whether there were any lovely and fertile valleys beyond the awful barriers of the Alleghanies, and, in great despondency, they abandoned the enterprise and returned to Carolina. The mother of this family was aged and infirm. One of her sons, who has given a very graphic description of their adventures, presents the following pleasing picture of a serene old age : " My mother had been weakly on our journey, and at Fredericktown was more seriously ill than I had ever known her before HISTORY OF OHIO - 247 or since. She still lives, a monument of the Lord's mercy, and a bright illustration of the discipline of which the human mind is susceptible. She has been blind about eight years, and to my recollection she never complained of any thing, but trusted all to divine Providence. She now, at the age of ninety-five, waits her change with patience, is little or no trouble to any one, enjoys good health, a serene and sound mind, and the age of dotage seems never to have overtaken her. She never gives unnecessary pain or trouble to any one, and is pleased when, by repeating words which she learned when a girl, she can add to the happiness of the social circle. She has been a woman of strict economy and great industry, but never milked a cow, and perhaps never spun a thread in her life, and scarcely ever cooked, but was a great sewer and knitter. This she does now with great facility, saying that if she could not knit, she would be very unhappy. She is very little of her time without her knitting, except on first days, as she calls the Sabbath. She was always a member of the Society of Friends. She is much delighted with hearing the Word or any religious book read." This pioneer family consisted of the aged mother, two sons —one twenty-one years old, and one eleven — and a sister, twenty-two years old. There also accompanied them a half brother, married, with a family of small children and a colored servant woman. They soon built their rude cabin, consisting of one room, twenty-four by eighteen feet, fronting the north. At one end were placed two beds, and upon shelves made of thin strips of boards, was displayed the household store of dishes of pewter and tin. By a short ladder an ascent was made to the loft above. Split-bottom chairs, three-legged stools, a looking-glass, eight inches by ten, a spinning wheel, shovel and tongs, with certain farming implements, completed the furnishing of the domicil. Still it was not rapid work constructing the. cabin. They had little money, and not much strength. Laborers were not to be had, and they had no money to pay them, could they have been obtained. So the work gradually progressed as best it could, erecting the chimney, laying the floors and putting in the tables, made of logs split in two through the middle. These puncheons seem to have been of universal use, forming floors by laying the round side of the log upon the ground ; making doors by a little shaving off of the curved side. It was found in the Spring that the HISTORY OF OHIO - 249 chimney was in danger of toppling over ; but they had few tools and little experience, so they braced it as well as they could with poles. The prevailing winds from west to east swept through the crevices of the cabin with one advantage — that of clearing it of smoke. Their sleep was sound and refreshing. Indeed, the nights seemed but about a minute in length. The beds were of leaves or straw ; the blankets, or cadders as they called them, were similar to the rag carpets now used for kitchen floors. " I well remember," says one, " the delight with which we received a new cadder, especially if there were some stripes of bright red." The evenings of the first Winter were rather lonely and dull. They had few books, and having had no harvest had nothing about which to busy themselves, as in after winters. Borrowing from a neighbor that wonderful allegory of the Bedford Tinker, the Pilgrim's Progress, they devoured its contents with eagerness. This, added to the Bible, George Fox's Journal, Barkley's Apology, and a few other books of like stamp, constituted their library. Yet there was an influence imparted by the perusal of such volumes, calculated to strengthen the character and form a taste for substantial reading. " Our Sundays, or First Day, as my mother, being one of the Society of Friends, chose to term it, I well remember. On removing to the West we carried part of a barrel of flour and a jar of white pure leaf lard, made in Carolina. On Sunday morning, and at no other time, from these materials were made short biscuit for the breakfast, rolled carefully in balls by my sister, and placed around the edge of the skillet and baked before the fire." The pleasure of the gourmand at Delmonico's, or at the tables of kings, was very small compared with that of these hungry, healthy occupants of the lonely cabin. And the reserving of the nicest and best for Sunday by these far-away frontiersmen had a savor of reverence in it that was certainly delightful. The cabin of our settlers was in the midst of a thick forest. Tall trees swayed in the breeze, sometimes threatening to come crashing down upon the cabin. And as the fierce wintry blast swept through their tops, the mournful requiem was often heard, saddening the half-sleepy inmates by its cadences. By degrees, however, the giant trees were prostrated, and the hand of civilization and opulence has replaced the old log cabin by the stately mansion of brick. The howl of the panther and the wolf, the