50 - HISTORY OF OHIO. descending the Ohio, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles, to the principal post of the French commandant. It was necessary for him to practice the utmost caution, as the Indians were proverbial for their treachery, and he was liable at any time to drift into an ambush. He at length reached the French fort in safety and delivered his message. The French commander, St. Pierre, received Washington at Fort Le Boeuf with much courtesy. He respectfully read his remonstrance, and gave him a written reply, in which he stated that he must obey the commands of his government ; and that he could not vacate his post until his government should give him orders to that effect. Washington saw very clearly that force alone could drive the French from the Valley of the Ohio. He was also surprised to see how strongly they were intrenching themselves there. Having accomplished this much of his mission, and fearing that the Indians, of their own will or instigated by the French, might intercept his return, as he should paddle up slowly against the current of the Ohio, he decided to leave the river, and with one only companion, to make their way back through the wilderness on foot. They would be compelled to construct their lodgings with their hatchets for the stormy day or the tempestuous night, and to live upon such game as they might take by the way. It was a very weary journey to take, with the rifle upon the shoulder and the pack upon the back. Washington's suspicions that he might be waylaid by French jealousy were not unfounded. Some Indians were put upon his trail; but even Indian sagacity could not follow two pair of mocassined feet over pathless wastes. Washington was familiar with wilderness life, and with all the Indian arts of cunning. He succeeded in eluding his pursuers. Still he came very near losing his life through savage treachery. One Indian, employed, it is supposed, by the French, met him as it were accidentally, and offered his services as a guide through a very intricate part of the way. He could lead through a narrow defile which would save many leagues of toilsome journeying. At night this Indian of iron sinews, seeing his companions so much fatigued by their day's tramp that he supposed they could not possibly pursue him, fired at Washington, at a distance of not more than fifteen paces, and missed his aim. Instantly he sprang HISTORY OF OHIO - 51 into the woods. Fleet of foot as he was, his indignant pursuers were more fleet, and he was soon caught. Washington's companion urged that the would-be assassin should instantly be put to death. But Washington shrunk from thus taking life in cold blood, and having disarmed the wretch, let him go. Still, thinking it not impossible that he might have some confederates near, he thought it expedient to push on as fast as possible through the long December night, taking especial care to leave no trace of his path behind him. They followed up the south side of the Ohio River, a few miles from its banks. When they reached the Alleghany River, nearly opposite where Pittsburgh now stands, there were no signs of civilized or even of savage life anywhere in sight. The banks of the river were fringed with ice, and immense solid blocks were floating down the middle of the stream. It took them all day with one hatchet to construct a frail raft. It was bound together with flexible vines and boughs. Upon this they endeavored to cross the rapid stream, encumbered as it was with the swiftly drifting ice. When about half way across, Washington's setting-pole became entangled, the raft whirled round, and he was thrown into the river where it was ten feet deep. For a moment he was entirely submerged in the icy waves. He, however, by the aid of his companion, succeeded in clambering again upon the icy-coated logs, and at length they reached, not the opposite side of the river, but a small island in the stream. Half-frozen as they both were, and drenched as was Washington, they hastily found some slight shelter, built a roaring fire, and, with the wintry blast sweeping by them, found such warmth and comfort as the circumstances could afford. Their situation, however, was not so very uncomfortable as many sitting by their own warm fireside might imagine. Experienced woodmen will, very expeditiously, construct a camp, enclosed on three sides and open on one, which, with sheathing of overlapping bark, will afford a very effectual shelter against the wind. A few boughs of the hemlock make a very soft and fragrant mattrass. Then, wrapped in blankets, with a crackling fire which illumines the whole forest blazing at one's feet, a degree of real comfort can often be enjoyed which is sought for in vain in ceiled chambers. 52 - HISTORY OF OHIO. The night was so cold that in the morning the river was frozen over, and they crossed upon the ice. The remainder of the journey home was uneventful. Williamsburg was then the capital of Virginia. Washington made his report to the Governor. It was published, and was extensively read in this country, and by statesmen in England. The one prominent fact which it established, and which arrested universal attention, was that France would resist, with all her military force, any attempts on the part of the English to establish settlements in the valley of the Ohio. The Legislature of Virginia happened to be in session, at Williamsburgh, when Washington returned. This modest young man seemed entirely unconscious that he had accomplished any feat which would give him renown. A few days after his return he went into the gallery of the House, to witness the proceedings of the Legislature. The speaker chanced to see him, and rising from his chair, addressed the assembly, saying : " I propose that the thanks of this house be given to Major George Washington, who now sits in the gallery, for the gallant manner in which he has executed the important trust lately reposed in him by his Excellency the Governor." The homage thus called forth was instantaneous and unanimous. Every member rose to his feet. There was a burst of applause which almost shook the rafters of the ceiling. Washington was immediately conducted to the speaker's chair. Every eye was fixed upon him. He was.quite overwhelmed by this enthusiastic greeting. Being entirely unaccustomed to public speaking, he knew not what to say. The speaker perceived his embarrassment, and very happily relieved him by saying : " Sit down, Major Washington. Your modesty is alone equal to your merit." Governor Dinwiddie was a reckless, headstrong man, who acted first, and then reflected, if he ever reflected at all. He not only hated but he despised the French. In his judgment the insolence of the French in claiming territory which the King of England claimed, was not to be tolerated for a moment. He would not condescend to take into any consideration the forces which France had gathered in the great valley. They were all to be driven out instantaneously, neck and heels. He raised a regiment of four hundred men, who were to march across the mountains, with orders " to drive away, kill or seize, as HISTORY OF OHIO - 53 prisoners, all persons not the subjects of the King of Great Britain, who should attempt to take possession of the land on the Ohio River, or any of its tributaries." George Washington was appointed colonel of this regiment. In his previous tour, his military eye had selected the point of land at the junction of the Monongahela and the Alleghany, for a fort where England should concentrate her strength. Having built this fort, garrisoned it, and supplied it with ample military and commissary stores, he would then construct several flat-bottomed boats, and, with the remainder of his little army, drift down the river, destroying all the trading posts of the French he might encounter by the way. In a military point of view there could not have been any better plan devised. But the French officers had military skill as well as the English. They also had selected that very spot for a French fortress, and were already very energetically at work throwing up its ramparts. As Washington, with his feeble regiment, was hurrying along through the forest-covered defiles of the mountains, he learned, greatly to his disappointment, and probably through the Indian runners, that the French had anticipated him. A large working party was already on the ground, under the direction of the most experienced engineers, and were erecting a fort, which his little band could not think of assailing. The tidings which reached the ears of Washington, were alarming in the extreme. They indicated that the only prudent course for him to pursue, was an ignominious and precipitant retreat. The French had sent a force of a thousand well armed men to the designated point. They had descended the Alleghany River in sixty fiat-bottomed boats, and three hundred birch canoes. They had taken with them eighteen pieces of cannon, which were already in position. They had also quite a numerous band of Indian allies. The French had kept themselves informed of every contemplated movement of the English. They had watched the discussions in the legislature, and knew, as definitely as did the English themselves, the number of men whom they had sent across the mountains, their destination, and the time of their expected arrival. To prevent, if possible, any hostile collision, they had sent so overwhelming a force that an attack could not be thought of 54 - HISTORY OF OHIO. Washington had found his march through the rugged passes of the mountains extremely exhausting. His men had suffered both from fatigue and hunger. It was reasonably supposed that, in the rich valleys beyond the mountains, abundance of grain would be found. Experienced hunters accompanied the little band, whose duty it was to range the fields, for miles around their path,. to procure food. The little army had just emerged from the rugged defiles of the Alleghanies, and were entering these fertile and well-stocked pastures, when the appalling news reached them. They were then within two or three days' march of Fort Duquesne, as the French named their works. To add to their misfortune, rumor,, though false, said that an outnumbering party of the French, accompanied by numerous Indian allies, were on a rapid march. to destroy them. This rumor led, as will subsequently be seen, to very deplorable consequences. Washington was then but twenty-two years of age. In contemplation of his apparently hopeless condition, his sufferings must have been dreadful. The thought of attacking the French, who were behind their ramparts, in such overpowering numbers„ was madness. Retreat, in their exhausted state, through the rugged, barren, pathless gorges of the mountains, was almost impossible. Two-thirds of their number would probably perish by the way. The thought of a surrender, without striking a blow, of the whole force, was humiliating beyond endurance. Washington was ready for almost any act of desperation rather than this. France and England were at that time at peace with each other. Though, as usual, they were regarding each other with jealousy, there was no declaration of war whatever. The French, in building a fort on territory of which they had been for nearly half a century in undisputed possession, had merely anticipated the English by a few days. The rumor that the French were on the march to attack the English was, as we have said, false, and was unsustained by any appearance of the foe. Subsequent developments established the following facts. The French were very anxious to avoid any collision on the distant banks of the Ohio, which would involve the two great kingdoms, of France and England, in a desolating war. By their spies they had kept themselves correctly informed of the daily HISTORY OF OHIO - 55 progress of the English. Washington and his band were entirely in the power of the French, who could crush them at a single blow. But that one blow would be the signal of a conflict which would encircle the globe. The French commandant at Fort Duquesne sent a peaceful embassage to Colonel Washington, seeking to avert hostile action. M. Jamonville, the peace commissioner, was a civilian. He took with him, as his escort through the wilderness, but thirty-four men ; not one to ten of the soldiers in Colonel Washington's regiment. This fact seems conclusive proof that the French declaration, that no hostile demonstration was intended, should be credited. About nine o'clock of one dark and stormy night, when the rain was falling in torrents, some friendly Indians came into Washington's camp and informed him that the French soldiers, who, it was supposed, were on the march to attack him, had encamped at the distance of but a few miles. They were in low bottom land, near the Monongahela River, in a place shut in by rocks, where they could very easily be taken by surprise and fired upon by an invisible foe. They also stated that there was a band of Indian warriors near by, who would gladly join them in the attack. Washington doubted not that this party was advancing to attack him by surprise. Within an hour he was on the march, led by his Indian guides through the dripping forest. They soon reached the camp of the Indians, who were all ready to join them. The assailants, their movements being concealed by the darkness and the storm, crept stealthily into the thickets, so as to attack the French in two separate parties. Just as the day was beginning to dawn, so that they could see to take aim at their sleeping and unsuspecting foes, there was a simultaneous discharge of musketry, and a storm of deadly bullets fell upon the French. M. Jamonville and ten of his men were killed outright. Others were wounded. The French sprang to their arms and fought bravely. But they were soon overpowered, and the survivors, twenty-five in number, were taken prisoners. This unhappy event, the result of a mistake, resulted in one of the most cruel wars which ever desolated humanity CHAPTER III. EXPULSION OF THE FRENCH. EMBARRASSMENTS OF WASHINGTON - HIS VIEWS OF PROFANITY -THE OUTBURST OF WAR - BRADDOCK'S EXPEDITION - THE UNHEEDED WARNINGS OF WASHINGTON - THE AMBUSH - DEFEAT OF BRADDOCK -TESTIMONY OF COLONEL SMITH - POLICY OF THE FRENCH - EMPLOYMENT OF INDIAN ALLIES - SCENES WITNESSED BY WASHINGTON - CAPTURE OF FORT DUQUESNE - THE CHEROKEE WAR - TESTIMONY OF COLONEL MARION - SPEECH OF ALLAKULLA. THE UNTOWARD event, which has been narrated at the close of the last chapter, created, at the time, intense excitement. The French regarded it as one of the grossest of outrages, in violation of all the established laws of civilization. There was no language too severe to express their abhorrence of the deed. But now that the passions of that day have passed away, the French magnanimously concur in the general verdict, that the unhappy event was the result of accident, for which Colonel Washington was very excusable. His whole previous and subsequent career proved that no temptation could induce him to be guilty of a dishonorable deed. But this occurrence, at the time, was as a spark to the powder. It opened the drama of war, with all its unspeakable horrors. The French commandant, at Fort Duquesne immediately dispatched fifteen hundred men, French and Indians, to avenge the wrong. As we have said, Washington, with his starving and exhausted troops, could not retreat over the barren leagues which he had already traversed. Still less could he hope to present any successful resistance to the overpowering and indignant troops pressing down upon him. Capitulation was inevitable. But his proud spirit could not stoop to a surrender until he had, at least made a manly show at resistance. He hastily threw up some HISTORY OF OHIO - 57 breastworks, and for a whole day struggled against the large force which entirely surrounded him. He then, to save the lives of his men, surrendered. The victors were generous. Considering the circumstances of the case, they were remarkably generous ; as they must have considered that their friends had been perfidiously massacred. It is probable that the ingenuousness of Washington so explained matters as to disarm the rage of M. de Villiers, the French commander. The Virginia troops were allowed to retire with their side-arms and all their possessions, excepting one or two pieces of artillery. Unmolested, and at their leisure, they returned to Virginia. On the whole, Washington's character did not suffer from this occurrence. His youth and inexperience, and the terrible circumstances of trial under which he was placed, disarmed the virulence of censure, in view of an act of apparent rashness. Moreover, it was considered that he had developed very great military genius and diplomatic sagacity in rescuing his little army from imminent destruction, and in conducting them safely back to their homes. Every army necessarily gathers into its ranks the wild, the reckless and the depraved. Very many of the rude frontiersmen who were following the banners of Washington, to drive the French from the great valley, were profane and unprincipled men. Oaths were far more often heard in the camp than prayers. The following order of the day, issued by this young officer of twenty-two years, is worthy of especial record : " Colonel Washington has observed that the men of his regiment are very profane and reprobate. He takes this opportunity to inform them of his great displeasure at such practices ; and assures them that, if they do not leave them off, they shall be severely punished. The officers are desired, if they hear any man swear, or make use of an oath or execration, to order the offender twenty-five lashes immediately, without a court martial. For a second offense, he shall be more severely punished." Such was Washington's character as a young man. Would that the young men of our land would follow the example of the Father of our Country, in purity of lips ! Twenty years after this, when George Washington was commander-in-chief of the army of the United Colonies, struggling against the whole power of Great Britain—a population but little exceeding that of the State of Ohio, encountering, in deadly battle, the armies of the most 58 - HISTORY OF OHIO. powerful empire then upon the globe—Washington, a man of piety and of prayer, felt deeply the need of divine assistance. In August, 1776, he issued the following order of the day to his defeated and almost despairing army at New York : " The General is sorry to be informed that the foolish and profane practice of cursing and swearing, a vice hitherto little known in an American army, is growing into fashion. He hopes that the officers will, by example as well as by influence, endeavor to check it ; and that both they and the men will reflect that we can have little hope of the blessing of Heaven on our arms, if we insult it by our impiety and folly. Add to this, it is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense and character detests and despises it." While speaking upon this subject, and one so important to our national reputation, I cannot refrain from quoting another anecdote of Washington, which was related to me by an officer of the. United States army, who was present on the occasion. Washington had invited the members of his staff to dine with him in the City of New York. As they were sitting at table, one of the guests uttered, very distinctly, an oath. Washington dropped his knife and fork, as though struck by a bullet. The attention of every one at the table was arrested, and there was breathless silence. After a moment's pause he said, in tones of solemnity and sadness, " I thought I had invited gentlemen only to dine with me." It is needless to add that there were no more oaths heard at that table. There was now war, fierce and unrelenting, between France and England—war which girdled the globe with its horrors. In the Spring of 1755, the British government sent two regiments of regular troops, from England, to cross the mountains, and to attack and capture Fort Duquesne. These soldiers knew nothing about life in the wilderness, and had no acquaintance whatever with Indian warfare. They were under the command of General Braddock, a self-conceited, self-willed man, who, in the pride of his technical military education, despised alike Frenchmen, Indians and Colonists. With his two regiments, numbering two thousand men, Braddock set out to cross the mountains, in a. straggling line of men and wagons, four, miles long. Washington accompanied him as one of his aids. He was astonished at the recklessness of the march. He assured Brad- HISTORY OF OHIO - 59 dock that the French, through Indian runners, would keep themselves informed of every step of his progress; that he was in danger every hour, of falling into an ambush, where hundreds of his men might be shot by an invisible foe ; and that the French and Indians, familiar with all the defiles of the mountains, might at any time pierce his straggling line, plunder his wagons, and,, striking on the right and on the left, throw his whole force into. confusion. It would seem that all this must have been obvious to any man of ordinary intelligence. But the arrogant and conceited British. general was not to be taught the arts of war, not he, by a provincial colonel, twenty-two years old, who had never seen even the inside of a military school. Successfully they threaded the defiles of the Alleghanies, and emerged through its western declivities into the beautiful Valley of the Monongahela. The army thus far had encountered no. molestation or even alarm. The self-confidence of Braddock increased with the successful progress of his march. With an air of great self-complacency, he virtually said, " You see I understand military affairs far better than any Virginia boy can be expected to understand them." Washington was silenced. He could not venture upon another word of remonstrance; and yet he trembled in view of the peril to which they were hourly exposed. He knew perfectly well that the French officers must be preparing to crush the expedition, by taking advantage of this fool-hardiness. The ninth of July dawned brightly upon the army as it entered. a defile of rare picturesque beauty, at a short distance from the banks of the Monongahela. It was one of those calm, cloudless, balmy days, in which all nature seems to be lulled into joyful repose; such a day as Herbert has beautifully described in the. words, "Sweet day, so still, so calm, so bright, The bridal of the earth and sky, The dews shall weep thy fall to-night, For thou must die." The defile into which they entered presented a natural path for the passage of the army with forest-crowned eminences rising on. either side, rugged with rocks, and covered with dense and almost impenetrable underbrush. It was just the spot which any mane 60 - HISTORY OF OHIO. familiar with Indian modes of warfare would be sure would be selected for an ambush. Proudly the thoughtless troops straggled along, with laughter and song, with burnished muskets, and polished cannon, and silken banners. They were British troops, led by British officers ! What had they to fear from cowardly Frenchmen or half-naked savages? Suddenly, like the burst of thunder from the cloudless heavens, came the rattle of musketry, and a tempest of lead swept through their astounded ranks. Crash followed crash in quick succession, before, behind, on the right, on the left. No foe was to be seen, yet every bullet accomplished its mission. The ground was soon covered with the dead, and with the wounded struggling in dying agonies. Amazement and consternation ran through the ranks. An unseen foe was assailing them. It was supernatural ; it was ghostly. Braddock stood his ground with senseless, bull-dog courage, until he fell, pierced by a bullet. After a short scene of confusion and horror, when nearly half the army were slain, the remnant broke in wild disorder and fled. The ambush was entirely successful. Six hundred of these unseen assailants were Indians, armed with French rifles and led by French officers. Washington, through this awful scene which he had been constantly anticipating, was perfectly calm and self-possessed. With the coolest courage he did everything which human sagacity could do to retrieve the disaster. Two horses were shot beneath him, and four bullets passed through his coat. It is one of the legends of the day that an Indian sharpshooter declared that Washington bore a charmed life ; that he took direct aim at him several times, at the distance of but a few paces, and that the bullets seemed either to vanish into air, or to glance harmless from his body. Eight hundred of Braddock's army, including most of the officers, were either killed or wounded. Washington rallied around him the few provincials, upon whom Braddock had looked with contempt. Each man immediately placed himself behind a tree, according to the necessities of forest warfare. As the Indians were bursting from their ambush, with tomahawk and scalping knife, to complete the massacre, the unerring fire of these provincials checked them, and drove them back. But for this, the army would have been utterly destroyed. All HISTORY OF OHIO - 61 Washington's endeavors to rally the British regulars were unavailing. Indignantly he writes, " They ran like sheep before the hounds." Panic-stricken, abandoning artillery and baggage, they continued their tumultuous retreat to the Atlantic coast. The provincials, in orderly march, protected them from pursuit. Braddock's defeat rang through the land as Washington's victory. The provincials, who, in silent exasperation, submitting to military authority, had allowed themselves to be led into this valley of death, proclaimed, far and wide, the cautions which Washington had urged, and the heroism with which he had rescued the remnant of the army. After the lapse of eighty years, a seal of Washington, containing his initials, which had been shot from his person, was found upon the battle-field, and is, at the present time, in possession of one of the family. The French made no attempt to pursue their advantage over the discomfited and fugitive foe. The army of Braddock was annihilated, so far as the possibility of doing farther harm was considered. Leaving the bleeding remnant of the British forces to struggle homeward, through the mountains, the French quietly returned to Fort Duquesne, there to await another assault, should the English venture to make one. These disasters caused great excitement in England, and even a change in the ministry. At the time of Braddock's disastrous defeat there chanced to be an English officer, Colonel James Smith, a prisoner at Fort Duquesne. He has given a very interesting account of the scenes which transpired there on that occasion. Indian spies were every day, entirely unknown to General Braddock, watching his movements. They would, on swift foot, return to the fort with an accurate report of his progress, his uncautious march, and they had sufficient intelligence to laugh to scorn his folly. One of them exultingly drew a map with a stick, on the ground, and explained to Colonel Smith the direction of Braddock's march, the straggling length of his line, and its entire indefensibleness. The Indian described the ambush into which the silly English general was so completely marching, and contemptuously said, in broken English, " We will shoot urn down all same as one pigeon." Early in the morning of the day, on which the attack was to be made, there was a great stir in the fort. Between four and five 62 - HISTORY OF OHIO. hundred Indian warriors, in great elation of spirits, were examining their guns, and supplying themselves with powder and bullets from barrels. Each took what he wanted. In single file, with rapid footsteps, the Indians marched off, accompanied by an equal number of French Canadians, and several companies of regulars. Late in the afternoon the bands began to return, with shouts ,of victory. First came some fleet footed runners, with tidings dreadful to Colonel Smith, but awaking the whole garrison to enthusiasm. The Indians and the French, they said, had completely surrounded the English, having caught them in a trap, from which there was no escape. Concealed and protected behind trees and rocks, they were firing upon the English, huddled together, in great confusion, in a narrow ravine, and they were falling in heaps. It was declared that before sundown every one of them would be shot. The war whoop of the Indian is as definite an utterance as the bugle's sound to the charge. But the savages had another very peculiar war cry, which was called the " scalp halloo." Soon large bands of the savages appeared, about a hundred in number, every one of whom had a bloody scalp, which he was -waving in the air, while the forest resounded with their hideous yells of exultation. They were also laden down with grenadier's caps, canteens, muskets, bayonets, and various articles of clothing, which they had stripped from the dead. " Those that were coming in, and those that had arrived," writes Colonel Smith, " kept a constant firing of small arms, and also ,of the great guns in the fort, which was accompanied by the most hideous shouts and yells from all quarters so that it appeared to me as if the infernal regions had broke loose. About sundown I beheld a small party coming in with about a dozen prisoners, stripped naked, with their hands tied behind their backs. Their faces, and parts of their bodies, were blackened. These prisoners they burned to death on the banks of the Alleghany River, opposite to the fort. I stood on the fort walls until I beheld them begin to burn one of these men. They tied him to a stake and kept touching him with fire-brands, red hot irons, etc., and he screaming in the most doleful manner. The Indians, in the Meantime, were yelling like infernal spirits. As this scene was too shocking for me to behold, I returned to my lodgings, both sorry and sore. 66 - HISTORY OF OHIO. exposure, the scene was often such as I shall never forget. The women and children clung round our knees, beseeching us to stay and protect them, and crying out to us, for God's sake, not to leave them to be butchered by the savages. A hundred times, I declare, to heaven, I would have laid down my life with pleasure, could I have insured the safety of those suffering people by the sacrifice." During the years of 1756 and 1757, the English, notwithstanding their great superiority in numbers, met but a succession of disasters. The Indians were the efficient and merciless allies of the French. In the hour of victory the uncontrollable savages perpetrated crimes which were a disgrace to humanity. The English were driven completely out of the disputed territory ,Of Ohio. The total defeat of the British army, under Braddock, established, for a time, the ascendency of the French, and their Indian allies, in the Valley of the Ohio and on the Great Lakes. The war, however, was still continued, bitterly, though feebly, on the part of the English. Fierce and triumphant bands of Shawanees, Cherokees and Iroquois Indians even crossed the mountains, to the eastern side, and desolated wide regions of the frontiers with fire and blood. These defeats were greatly humiliating to England, who, as we have mentioned, outnumbered the French on this continent, more than ten to one—indeed it was more than twenty to one. The French, in Canada, then numbered but forty-five thousand. The English colonies contained a population of one million and fifty-one thousand. Early in the year 1758, great preparations were made by the British government to retrieve its lost reputation, by the entire reduction of the French posts. To render assurance doubly sure, they organized an army of seven thousand men, with a very perfect military outfit for the reduction of Fort Duquesne. The army was rendezvoused at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and in the latter part of the Summer commenced its march across the mountains. General Forbes was in command. About the middle of September this strong force was approaching the fort. Major Grant was dispatched to reconnoiter, at the head of one thousand men. Eight hundred of these were Scotch Highlanders, Two hundred were Virginians, under a provincial officer, Major Lewis. Major Grant was another Braddock ; self conceited and brave, thinking HISTORY OF OHIO - 67 that an English officer had nothing to learn, and that British regulars had nothing to fear. Grant succeeded in drawing near to the fort unperceived. He then conceived that, with his one thousand men, he could capture the fort, striking it by surprise, and thus win to himself all the glory. But Major Andrew Lewis, an equally brave man, and a far more prudent and able officer, warned him against the folly of the attempt. Grant made the insulting and stinging reply: " You and your provincials may remain behind with the baggage, I will show you, with my British regulars, how to take the fort." With the early light of the morning, Grant and his Highlanders, with senseless bravado, came marching over what is called Grant's Hill, waving their banners and beating their drums. The display was too fool-hardy to be called brave. In close vicinity to the fort there was an encampment of nearly two thousand Indian allies. These were generally veteran warriors, well armed, and unerring marksmen. These savages glided from their retreat stealthily as prowling wolves, and soon almost entirely surrounded, unseen, the band of this infatuated leader. Every rock, tree, thicket, afforded them covert. They suddenly opened a deadly and incessant fire. The English fought bravely, as they always do; but in a few moments one-third of their number were weltering in blood. As each Highlander fell, a savage would leap from his concealment, the flash of his knife would be seen, and the scalp of his victim would be waved in the air with a yell of exultation. "The work of death," it is written, "went on rapidly, and in a manner quite novel to the Scotch Highlanders, who in all their European wars had never before seen men's heads skinned." Major Lewis, who, in obedience to the order so contemptuously given, was at some little distance guarding the baggage, perceived by the retreating fire that Major Grant was overpowered. Bravely he came to his rescue, and with his provincials, well acquainted with Indian warfare, assailed the savages so impetuously as to check their pursuit, and to open a way of escape for a part of Grant's men. But in performing this heroic act he was surrounded himself. Many of his men fell, and he was taken prisoner, as was also Major Grant. The only officer remaining unhurt was Captain Bullet, in command of one of the companies of Virginia pro- 68 - HISTORY OF OHIO. vincials. With great skill he conducted the retreat of the fugitives until they reached a place where he threw up entrenchments, which subsequently received the name of Fort Ligonier. Twice he was fiercely assailed, and both attacks he gallantly repelled, with a loss of but sixty-seven men in killed and wounded. Ere long the main body of the army made its appearance. With the overwhelming force, then numbering six or seven thousand men, they soon captured Fort Duquesne. The banners of all-conquering England were unfurled over its ramparts, and the name of the fort was changed to Pitt, from the illustrious British minister of that name. The little village which soon sprang up around it was called Pittsburgh. General Forbes repaired the fort, and then, in flat-bottomed boats, with the remainder of his army, descended the Ohio River to the Mississippi, and then floated down the " Father of 'Waters " to the gulf. On the way he took possession of all the French forts and trading posts on the Ohio River, and also erected and garrisoned a fort, which he called Massac, on the right bank of the river, in the present State of Illinois, about forty miles above the mouth of the Ohio. While these signal victories were obtained in the great valley, the British arms were equally triumphant in the north. Ticonderoga, Crown Point, Fort Niagara and Quebec were taken that same year. Presque Isle, Detroit, and several other French posts, fell also into the hands of the English. The next year, Montreal passed to the British crown, and with it the whole of Canada. But still the French, with their Indian allies, kept up the war. The British were very brave, but, in their intercourse with the savages, they manifested but little of that spirit of politeness and conciliation with which the French won the hearts of the Indians. In the southeastern borders of what is now Tennessee, there was a very beautiful country, of fertile and sheltered meadows, sunny and green slopes, gigantic forests and towering mountains, where the Cherokee Indians had a happy home, with abundant supplies of game. Mountain ridges bounded their magnificent realm, and the Cherokees, though peacefully inclined, were considered one of the most powerful nations on the continent. Intellectually they were far above the great mass of the Indians. They had many large and pleasant villages, with fields of corn   HISTORY OF OHIO - 69 and fruit. English adventurers had been hospitably received in sixty-four of these towns, and had found some of them very respectably fortified. The nation could send six thousand warriors into the field. In 1756, the English sent a deputation to the Cherokee country, to solicit the aid of the nation against the French. A council was convened. The English commissioners and Cherokee chiefs met, and smoked the pipe of peace amicably. Everything promised a speedy and firm alliance, when a messenger came in with the announcement that a party of their warriors, who had been on a visit to the French on the banks of the Ohio, while peaceably returning, had been attacked and massacred by the English. These tidings threw the council into the greatest excitement. Many of the impetuous young warriors were disposed to take immediate revenge, by putting the English commissioners to the torture and to death. It was with much difficulty that the older and more considerate braves restrained them. There was a very wise and truly noble old man, by the name of Attakulla, who was the head chief of the nation. He, with magnanimity worthy of all praise, saved the lives of the commissioners and allowed them to depart in peace. After this, the French found but little difficulty in enlisting the nation on their side. All the young warriors were pleased with the excitements of war, and, burning with the desire for vengeance, flocked eagerly to their standards. With horrid devastation they swept the frontiers. The Governor of South Carolina summoned the whole militia of the state, to protect his borders and to carry the war into the territory of the Cherokees. But the Indians had sufficient intelligence to understand that their quarrel was with the Virginia colonists, and none others. They, therefore, sent thirty of their chiefs on a peace embassage, led by the humane and renowned Attakulla, to settle all differences with the South Carolinians, at Charleston. Governor Littleton received them very haughtily. He condescended to meet them in council, not, however, to listen to their views, but to announce his own. In a long and angry speech he denounced their actions, and, in conclusion, declared to them that if they did not immediately renounce their alliance with the French, and join the English, in their warfare against them, he would not be responsible for their personal safety. 70 - HISTORY OF OHIO. Thus the English governor proved himself more of a savage than the Indian chieftain. One of the chiefs gravely rose to reply. The Governor angrily silenced him, saying : " I will listen to no talk in vindication of your tribe. You have heard my terms. I will listen to no other proposals for peace. Come and join our standards or I will desolate your whole country with my military force, which is now ready to march." The sage Indian chiefs felt keenly this insult. They had visited the Governor with hearts open for peace, and had been treated with the grossest indignity. There was not a savage tribe on the continent, who would thus have repelled such friendly advances. The perfidious Governor compelled them, under a strong guard, to accompany him to the Congarees, where he had assembled a very strong force for those times, consisting of one thousand four hundred men, thoroughly armed. He wished to show them how formidable was the army with which he intended to invade their country. When the Governor, with his escort and captives, reached the Trundiga River, about three hundred miles from Charleston, and on the borders of the Cherokee country, this Governor, who called himself a civilized man, fearful that the chiefs might escape, ordered these ambassadors of peace into close confinement. He then summoned Attakulla, who had ever been the firm friend of the English, before him, and declared that unless twenty-four of the Cherokees were delivered up to him, to be put to death, as an atonement for the English who had been massacred by the savages, the war should be prosecuted with all vigor. In the meantime the chiefs were detained as hostages, expecting daily to be put to death. Attakulla was permitted to return to the nation with the terms the Governor demanded. It soon being suspected that the chiefs were about to make a desperate effort to escape, they were all put in irons, or rather orders were given to place the shackles on their hands and their feet. They resisted, stabbing three of the soldiers. This so exasperated the rest that they fell fiercely upon the captives, and brutally murdered them all. This horrid butchery roused the nation to a man. The chiefs were their great men, their most renowned braves, and were much beloved. " 'The spirits," said one of their orators, " of our murdered brothers are hovering around us, and calling for vengeance on our enemies." HISTORY OF OHIO - 71 The exasperated young warriors came, with a rush, upon the frontiers of the Carolinas. Every where the war whoop resounded. Cabins blazed at midnight. Men, women and children fell before the tomahawk of the savage. The benighted Indians thought that they were thus but performing a religious duty, avenging their slaughtered fathers. The scattered settlers, in their turn, fled from their homes. Many starved to death in the wilderness. Misery held high carnival. Every day brought fresh accounts of ravages and murders. The alarm spread fearfully through both of the Carolinas. Governor Lyttleton had unloosed the tiger, and it was quite out of his power again to cage him. Both of the Carolinas united to raise troops to meet the awful emergence. Twelve companies of British regulars were sent, by General Amherst, to their aid. These troops, with a large number of provincials, were pushed rapidly forward, directly into the Cherokee country, hoping that by killing, plundering and burning there, without mercy, they might call back, to the protection of their homes, the wandering savage bands, who were inflicting such awful desolation on the frontiers. One can not but pause to reflect upon the fact, that one single man, by a spirit of conciliation, might have averted all these horrors. It was in May, 1760, that the English, with great energy, commenced their campaign of the invasion of the Cherokee territory. For some time they advanced unmolested, all the Indians — men, women and children — retiring before them. They came to several Indian villages utterly deserted. They laid them all in ashes. One of these villages, Keowee, contained two hundred very comfortable houses. It was just the time for spring planting. But no planting could be done. Thus the intelligent Indians saw, before them, an autumn and winter of hunger and starvation. The sagacious Indian chiefs allowed the English to push on, mile after mile, through the rugged and pathless defiles of the mountains. Foot-sore and weary the troops clambered over the rocks, forded mountain torrents, and waded through morasses, till they came within five miles of a large Indian town, called Etchoe. Here the narrow trail, which they were following, led through a low, damp valley, which was so thickly overgrown with forest trees and underbrush that the soldiers could not see ten feet before them. 72 - HISTORY OF OHIO. Through this valley the army must pass in a long and straggling line. Prudently an officer was sent forward, with a company of rangers, to scour the thicket. These troops had advanced but a few rods when a sudden discharge of fire arms from an unseen foe laid the captain dead upon the ground, and also many of his men. The English and provincial soldiers, always brave, immediately charged, with great impetuosity, into the thicket. There was no foe to be seen. And yet the Indians, concealed behind the trees, and acquainted with every inch of the ground, took deliberate aim, at their advancing foes, and kept up a constant and deadly fire. The English could only fire at random in return. The forest resounded with the shrill war whoop of the savages, as they saw their enemies falling, one by one, before their deliberate aim. .Thus, for an hour, the unequal conflict continued. The English lost in killed and wounded nearly a hundred men. It was never known what the loss of the Indians was, for, in slowly retreating, they carried with them their dead and wounded. They fought, however, at such great advantage that their loss must have been very small. The savages had made careful arrangements for a safe retreat, After they had disappeared, the English officers examined the ground which their foes had selected for the battle-field. They were surprised at the judgment which the Indians had displayed in the position they had taken, and in all the tactics of the battle. It was admitted that the most experienced European officers could not have made more judicious arrangements for the conflict. The English had suffered so severely by the fatigues of their long march, the want of food, and the loss in this bloody battle, that it was deemed necessary to order an immediate retreat. Their provisions were nearly exhausted, and it was very certain that the Indians would leave them no supplies. A chief, by the name of Oconostota, commanded the Cherokees in this battle. Being left in possession of the field by the retreat of the English, he immediately marched his victorious warriors to Fort Loudon, on the River Tellico, in what is now Monroe County, Tennessee. The English had reared here quite a strong fort, which was garrisoned by two hundred men. A very vigorous siege was promptly commenced. The troops had relied very much upon the game, with which the forests abounded, fog the supply of their lar- HISTORY OF OHIO - 73 ders. This resource was now cut off, and no possible replenishment of their empty stores could reach them from beyond the mountains. They soon found themselves in a starving condition. After eating their horses and dogs, and being reduced to mere skeletons, they were compelled, on the 7th of August, to surrender. Oconostota granted them very liberal terms. They were to abandon the fort with all its military contents, but were permitted to retire, each soldier with his musket, to the nearest white settlement. The next day, a weak and trembling band, they had ascended the river about fifteen miles towards the southeast, on their return to North Carolina, when five hundred warriors surrounded them. These savages, regardless of the terms of capitulation, and breathing only vengeance, fell upon them furiously, tomahawk in hand, and speedily put nearly every one to death. Amidst horrid yells the massacre was speedily accomplished. A few only were taken captive. These were strongly pinioned, and carried back to Fort Loudon, perhaps reserved for torture to grace the Indians' victory. Strange as it may seem, the noble Attakulla was still the earnest advocate for peace. His intelligence taught him that the war could be fruitful only in ruin and misery to both parties. Among the captives brought back to Fort Loudon, there was a Captain Stuart, who had been a former acquaintance and friend of Attakulla. The renowned chieftain, in virtue of his office as head chief, claimed Captain Stuart as his prisoner. He then embraced an early opportunity to enable him to escape. Thus sadly passed the Summer of 176o. During the winter the savages kept up a desultory warfare, but most of the lonely settlers had abandoned their homes. In the Spring of 1761 the English made very rigorous preparations for a new campaign. The pride of England was aroused, that a handful of savages should bid defiance to her powerful colonies. An English army of two thousand five hundred men was rendezvoused in the extreme northwestern frontiers of South Carolina, at a military post called Fort George. 'They had also succeeded in winning to their side some of the Chickasaw and Catawbas warriors. In the meantime a French officer, Colonel Latinac, was sent on an embassage to the Cherokees to supply them with arms and ammunition, and to incite their zeal anew against the English. He met the chiefs in council, and said to them : 74 - HISTORY OF OHIO. " The English will be satisfied with nothing else than the utter extermination of the Cherokees from the face of the earth. They seek to ravage all your fields, to burn all your villages, and to put every man, woman and child to death." Brandishing his hatchet he struck it furiously into a log, exclaiming : " Who is the man who will take this hatchet up for the king of France ? Where is he ? Let him cone forth." A young warrior, by the name of Saloneh, whose village, of Estatoe, had been burned by the English, stepped forward, seized. the hatchet, and waving it in the air, exclaimed : " I will take it up. I am for war. The spirits of the slain call upon us. I will avenge them. And who will not ? He is no better than a woman who refuses to follow me." All these fierce warriors responded to this appeal with the clash of weapons and the shouting of the war-whoop. On the 7th of June, the English army, much more powerful in numbers and better appointed than before, commenced its march. As in the previous campaign, they met with no opposition in their passage through the dreary defiles of the mountains. But when they reached the spot where the battle took place a year before, the scouts discovered a large body of Cherokees, very strongly posted on a hill side, on the right flank of the army. The Indians, seeing the advance guard to be not very strong, rushed down the hill upon them, in an impetuous charge. But the main body hurried up, and, after a very hot conflict, succeeded in driving the savages back to their position on the hill. General Grant, who was in command of the British and provincial forces, now moved forward his whole army to drive the savages from the heights. The engagement became general, and lasted for three hours, equal bravery being displayed on either side. The Indians were fresh from their homes, unfatigued, well fed and sanguine with hope from their previous victory. On the other hand, the condition of the English was deplorable. They had encountered a constant succession of storms on their toilsome march, keeping them drenched to the skin by day and by night. All of them were much fatigued, and many of them in condition to go into a hospital rather than into battle. Still they fought with characteristic bravery. They were frequently repelled by the galling fire of the savages, but they always rallied again. Whenever they were losing in one quarter, they HISTORY OF OHIO - 75 were gaining in another. Thus the tides of battle ebbed and. flowed, from eight o'clock in the morning until eleven o'clock at noon. The military intelligence of the Indians was evidenced in. the fact that while they engrossed the attention of the English, by a fierce attack upon their front, a number of their warriors were sent secretly and by a circuitous route to attack their baggage train. They came very near accomplishing this feat. The commissary and military stores were only saved by a party being hastily sent from the main body to the aid of the rear guard. At length British intelligence, discipline and valor prevailed over the Cherokees, and they were put to flight. Sixty of the English were struck by the bullets of the savages before they fled. The loss of the savages is not known. It was, however, probably small, as they were very careful to keep their persons concealed behind rocks and trees. " War," says Napoleon, " is the science of barbarians." The victorious English now entered upon a career of punishing the defeated savages. They swept the Cherokee country for thirty days, in all directions, trampling the crops, burning the villages and shooting the warriors wherever they could be found. Fourteen large towns were laid in ashes. A large number of well-stored granaries were committed to the flames. The women and children fled in terror from their dreadful foe to the fastnesses of the mountains, where, it is said, many of them perished of starvation. Colonel Francis Marion, who subsequently attained national renown in the Revolutionary war, was a subordinate officer in this campaign. In a letter to a friend he gives the following touching account of the scenes he witnessed : " We arrived at the Indian towns in the month of July. As the lands were rich and the season had been favorable, the corn was bending under the double weight of lusty, roasting ears, and pods and clustering beans. The furrows seemed to rejoice under their precious loads ; the fields stood thick with bread. We encamped, the first night, in the woods near the fields, where the whole army feasted on the young corn, which, with fat venison, made a most delicious treat. " The next morning we proceeded, by order of Colonel Grant, to burn down the Indian cabins. Some of our men seemed to enjoy this cruel work, laughing very heartily at the curling flames as they mounted, loud, crackling over the tops of the huts but 76 - HISTORY OF OHIO. to me it appeared a shocking sight. ' Poor creatures,' thought I, ' we surely need not grudge you such miserable habitations.' But when we came, according to orders, to cut down the fields of corn, I could scarcely refrain from tears. For who could see the stalks, that stood so stately, with broad, green leaves and gaily-tasseled shocks, filled with sweet, milky fluid and flour, the staff of life,—who, I say, could see without grief these sacred plants sinking under our swords, with all their precious load, to wither and rot untasted in the fields. " I saw everywhere around the footsteps of little Indian children, where they had lately played under the shelter of the rustling corn. No doubt they had often looked up with joy to the swelling shocks, and were gladdened when they thought of their abundant cakes for the coming winter. When we are gone, thought I, they will return, and, peeping through the weeds with tearful eyes, will mark the ghastly ruin poured over their homes and the happy fields where they had so often played." The Cherokees were crushed. Like the rush of the tornado the English swept over their fertile fields. Smouldering ruins, desolation, death were everywhere. A deputation of chiefs, completely humiliated, visited the camp, imploring peace. Among them was the noble Attakulla. In the following appropriate and truly pathetic speech he addressed General Grant : " You live at the water side, and are in light. We are in darkness; but we hope that all will yet be clear. I have been constantly going about doing good. Though I am tired, yet I am come to see what can be done for my people, who are in great distress. As to what has happened, I believe that it has been ordered by our Father above. We are of a different color from the white people. They are superior to us ; but one God is Father of us all, and we hope that what is past will be forgotten. God Almighty made all people. There is not a day but that some are coming into the world, and others are going out of it. The Great King told me that the path should never be crooked, but open for every one to pass and repass. As we all live in one land, I hope we shall all live as one people." Peace was formally ratified, with the declaration that it should last as long as the sun should shine or the waters run. Thus the dreadful Cherokee war was brought to an end in the Summer of 1761. CHAPTER IV. LIFE AMONG THE OHIO INDIANS CAPTURE OF JAMES SMITH - SCENES AT FORT D UQUESNE -RUNNING THE GAUNTLET - THE TORTURE - CEREMONY OF ADOPTION - AN INDIAN DANCE - THE STRATAGEM OF BUFFALO HOOFS - LOST IN THE WOOD - THE PUNISHMENT OF DEGRADATION - MEN AND WOMEN'S WORK THE GAME OF FOOT-BALL - INDIAN HOSPITALITY - POWERS OF ENDURANCE - ATTEMPT TO RUN DOWN A HORSE. IN THE account we have given of Braddock's defeat, there is allusion to Colonel James Smith, who was a prisoner in Fort Duquesne at that time. His history is so remarkable, and sheds such light upon the customs of the Indians, as to be worthy of special record. It is said that he was the first Anglo-American who wrote an account of his adventures in the vast wilderness beyond the Alleghanies. For the account here given we are indebted to the very interesting " Sketches of Western Adventure," by Rev. John A. M'Clung, D.D. In the spring of the year 1755, James Smith, then a lad but eighteen years of age, accompanied a party of three hundred men from the western frontiers of Pennsylvania, across the Alleghany mountains, for the purpose of opening a road, by which artillery could be transported for the attack of Fort Duquesne. When the party had reached Bedford Springs he was sent back to urge forward some wagons which were in the rear. Having fulfilled his mission, he was returning to the main body with another young man, both mounted, when they were fired upon, from ambush, by a party of three Indians. Smith's companion fell dead. Smith was unhurt, but his terrified horse so plunged and reared that he was thrown violently to the ground. The Indians sprang upon him. One of them could speak English. He asked if more white men were coming up. Upon being answered in the negative, two 78 - HISTORY OF OHIO. of them seized him by the arm and hurried him along, hour after hour, with the utmost possible speed, over the mountains. Scarcely a word was spoken. At night they encamped, built their fire, and cooked their supper. They shared their provisions liberally with .their prisoner, and though they guarded him vigilantly, he was treated with much kindness. The next day they pressed on so rapidly that Smith thought that they must have traversed fifty miles. Late in the evening they reached the western side of Laurel Mountain, when they saw, in the distance, the gleam of the fires of an Indian encampment. The captors fired their guns, and unitedly raised the shrill, piercing shriek, called the scalp halloo. The Indians in the camp below responded with a similar cry, and rushed out to meet the party, whose yell had announced that they were returning in triumph. Though the Indians in the camp belonged to another tribe, the visitors were treated with great hospitality. The next morning the march was continued, and on the evening of the next day they reached Fort Duquesne. As they approached they raised again the scalp halloo. This threw the whole garrison into commotion. It was recognized as the shout •of victory on the part of the Indian allies of the French. Cannon were fired, drums beaten, and bugle peals sounded through the forest as Indians and Frenchmen rushed out to greet the returning party. The Indians, who were very numerous, immediately formed in two lines, about six or eight feet apart. There were men, women and boys, and all were armed with hatchets, ramrods or switches, and seemed animated with the expectation of some great sport. Smith looked upon the movement with wonder, having no knowledge of the fate which awaited him. It was soon explained to him that he was to run the gauntlet, as it was called ; that is, he was to run between the two lines, and receive a blow from each of the Indians as he passed. One of his captors kindly told him to run as fast as he possibly could, and the affair would sooner be over. There was no escape. Smith was stripped almost naked, and entered upon the terrible ordeal. Straining every nerve, he set out upon the race, and blows of cruel severity were showered down upon him. Mangled, faint and bleeding, he had arrived near the end, when HISTORY OF OHIO - 79 a powerful chief, with the blow of a club upon his head, felled him to the ground. Soon recovering from his bewilderment, he sprang to his feet and started forward, when a handful of sand was thrown violently into his eyes. Thus blinded, and in acutest pain, he still endeavored to grope his way along, and he was again knocked down and beaten so mercilessly as to become quite insensible. He recollected nothing more till he found himself in the hospital of the fortress, with his flesh bruised almost to a jelly, from head to feet. Here his captors, who had ever treated him kindly, visited him. Young Smith inquired what he had done to merit such cruel treatment. They replied that he had done nothing, but that this was the custom—that it was the greeting which they always gave their captives. It was, they said, like the English custom of shaking hands, and saying, " How do you do." But they assured him that now, having passed through this ceremony, he would be treated with all kindness. It may be proper to suggest that, from this polite reception by the savages, may have originated the greeting which young men in our highest seats of learning often give to strangers who come to share their intellectual and social privileges. The practice which the savages called running the gauntlet, the college gentlemen call hazing. The amusement consists in pouring lamp oil down one's back and over one's coat ; in confining their victim in a room, and stifling him, almost to strangulation, with tobacco smoke ; three or four stout young men will seize one feeble one, and half drown him beneath the spout cf a pump, or compel him to the humiliation of dancing a hornpipe or sing a song at their bidding. Agreeable as these pastimes may be to the civilized and cultured young gentlemen who perform them, it is earnestly to be hoped that the custom will not spread to be in vogue with the gentlemen and ladies of the most refined circles of society, in their reception of distinguished guests from abroad. Smith inquired of his captors if they had received any tidings of the advance of General Braddock's army. They replied exultingly, that their scouts were watching him every day, and that they would soon shoot them all down like pigeons. Slowly Smith recovered from his merciless beating. On the morning of the ninth of July, he was hobbling along, by the aid of a stick, on the battlements of the fort, when he perceived an unusual corn- 80 - HISTORY OF OHIO. motion in tne garrison. Crowds of Indians were around the great gate. Open barrels of powder and bullets were placed there. They were eagerly filling their powder horns and pouches. Then, about four hundred in number, they followed a company of French regulars, and entering one of the trails of the forest, soon disappeared from view. The force under General Braddock was vastly superior to that of his assailants. And when Smith soon learned that Braddock was within a few miles of the fort, he had no doubt that the British regulars would speedily disperse the mongrel band sent out to meet them. He was therefore auite elated with the prospect of a speedy release from captivity. About the middle of the afternoon an ndian runner came to the fort, announcing the utter defeat of Braddock and as the sun was sinking beneath the horizon, the forest seemed filled with those shrill, triumphant yells, the scalp halloo. Soon an Indian band appeared driving before them twelve British regulars, strip-. ped naked and painted black, an evidence that they were doomed. to death by torture. The savages were frantic with joy, dancing, yelling, brandishing their tomahawks, and waving gory scalps in the air. To the eternal disgrace of the French commander, he allowed these unhappy.prisoners of war to be led to the banks of the Alleghany, and there to be put to death with all the lingering horrors of savage barbarity. From the battlements of the fort, Smith witnessed the awful scene, and listened to the shrieks of the sufferers. Two or three days after this shocking spectacle, young Sthith was demanded of the French by his captors, and embarking with them in a canoe, ascended the Alleghany River to a small Indian town about forty miles above Fort Duquesne. They then, leaving their canoe, struck through the woods into what is now the State of Ohio, until they reached a small Indian village called Tullihas, on the western branch of the Muskingum River. Until this time Smith had suffered much anxiety respecting his ultimate fate. He knew not but that he was reserved for the awful tortures which he had already seen inflicted upon his countrymen. But here, the morning after his arrival, the principal. members of the tribe gathered around him and entered upon the rather formidable ceremony of adopting him as a son of the tribe. HISTORY OF OHIO - 81 For a time he was somewhat astonished at the procedure, as he knew not its aim and end. An aged chief commenced with great dexterity plucking out his hair by the roots. Occasionally he dipped his finger in ashes to render his hold upon the hair more firm. Patiently Smith submitted to the operation. Soon his head was entirely bald, with one tuft only left upon the top, called the scalp lock. This was carefully braided and ornamented with several silver spangles. It was a part of Indian chivalry to leave this tuft of hair, so that the enemy, if victorious, could take the scalp. His nose and ears were bored and earrings inserted. He was then stripped entirely naked, and his body was profusely and fantastically painted. A strip of cloth, in the Indian fashion, was wound around his loins, a gorgeous belt of wampum entwined around his neck, and silver bands fastened around his right arm. He now stood forth, in appearance, a veritable Indian. It would have required a very keen eye to have distinguished him from one of the natives. Thus far Smith was entirely ignorant of the object of these strange procedures. He had many fears that he was being decorated for some appalling sacrifice. These operations were all performed in one of the wigwams, but few being present. The old chief then took him by the hand, led him out into the open air, and gave three of those shrill, piercing whoops which only an Indian's throat can utter. Instantly every inhabitant of the village, all the men, women and children, were gathered around him. The venerable chief, still holding him by the hand, addressed the tribe in a long and animated speech, unintelligible of course to Smith. When he had ceased speaking, three buxom, mirthful Indian maidens came forward, and seizing him dragged him to the river which flowed near by. They drew him into the water, up nearly to their arm-pits, and commenced scrubbing him with the greatest vehemence. Occasionally all three would place their hands upon his head and endeavor to force it under water. He, thinking their object was to drown him, made manful resistance. One of the young girls perceiving his alarm, burst into a merry laugh, exclaiming, in broken English, " We no hurt you! We no hurt you!" He then submitted, and they plunged him under the water again and again, giving his whole body as thorough a washing as any ablution could confer. 6 82 - HISTORY OF OHIO. It was bitter cold weather, and notwithstanding the violent discipline to which he had been subjected, he shivered as he was led ashore, dripping with water. Several Indians then came forward and dressed him in a shirt of deer skin, richly fringed, and with moccasins and leggins gorgeously colored and highly ornamented. He was seated upon a couch covered with a bear skin; a lighted pipe, filled with fragrant tobacco, was placed in his hands, and also a tomahawk, with pouch, flint and steel The chiefs took seats by his side, and, for a few moments, smoked in perfect silence. Then one of the orators arose, and in a very impressive manner addressed the young man of their adoption in the following words : " My son, you are now one of us. Hereafter you have nothing to fear. In accordance with an ancient custom, you have been adopted in the room of a brave man who has fallen in battle. Every drop of white blood has been washed from your veins. We are now your brothers, and are bound by our laws to love you, to defend you, and to avenge your injuries, as much as if you were born in our tribe." He was then formally introduced to all the warriors, and was received by every member of the tribe with touching testimonials of regard. In the evening a great feast was prepared in honor of the occasion. Young Smith was then presented with a large wooden bowl and spoon. The bowl he was invited to fill with a very palatable preparation of boiled corn and tender venison finely hashed. This was simmering over the fire in a huge kettle, and all the warriors at the feast helped themselves. Gentlemanly propriety presided at the entertainment. There was no rudeness, no boisterous merriment. The festivities were closed late in the evening by a brilliant bonfire and a war dance. All the warriors were decorated with paint and waving plumes, and with their most gorgeous military trappings. Early the next morning nearly all their braves, thoroughly armed and well mounted, set off, in single file, for a predatory excursion across the Ohio River, among the scattered cabins and feeble settlements in Western Virginia. They left two or three renowned hunters to provide their wives and children with game during their absence. In leaving the village the warriors, apparently impressed with the perils of their enterprise, preserved the most profound silence. HISTORY OF OHIO - 83 The leader of the band, however, a distinguished chief, chanted a dirge-like air called " The Traveler's Parting Song." When they had fairly entered the forest and were beyond sight of the village, they fired a farewell salute. They discharged their rifles slowly, in regular succession, commencing in the front and ending with the rear. Soon after the warriors left, all the young people, the lads and the lasses prepared for a dance. It will be remembered that young Smith was but eighteen years of age, still he was not sufficiently acquainted with Indian customs to take a part in the dance. He was an interested looker on. The dancers formed themselves in two lines, about twenty feet apart, facing each other. The girls were in one line and the young men in the other. Some musical genius had a carefully-prepared gourd in his hand, with rind thin and sonorous, partially filled with beads. With this rude instrument he contrived to make a sort of jingling melody, beating time with considerable precision. All the voices were joined in concert with this leader, singing a monotonous, plaintive song, to whose cadences it was easy to keep time with their feet. They were all dressed in their gayest costume, of moccasins and soft deer-skin leggins, richly fringed and decorated in brightest colors with beads, shells and spangles. Their forms seemed to be the perfection of human statuary, tall, lithe and graceful. Their plump arms and beautifully-formed chests were bare. The color of their skin attracted admiration by its beauty ; it perfectly resembled, in its healthful spotless purity, burnished copper, such as we see in coin fresh from the mint. There were few ball-rooms in Christendom which could present so fascinating a group as was that morning exhibited by Indian young men and maidens on the green sward which lined the banks of the Muskingum. Young Smith seems to have possessed a very philosophic and observing frame of mind. He watched the movements of the dancers very closely, and was much amused in seeing that human hearts beat beneath their copper-colored bosoms with the same throbbings which are experienced beneath complexions more fair. The dance consisted of the two lines advancing towards each other with measured tread until they met. They would then exchange loving glances, tender words, and not unfrequently an affectionate pat upon the cheek, and again, in unbroken lines, 84 - HISTORY OF OHIO. draw back to their first positions. This was continued hour after hour. The young girls seemed to understand the arts of coquetry and the most attractive mode of playing off their charms fully as well as their sisters in more enlightened communities. He was greatly surprised, and our readers will probably be, in learning that the Maidens, instead of the young men, took decidedly the lead in all the acts of courtship. The young men were far more shy, coy and bashful than the girls. The lovemaking was principally on the part of the maidens; and they manifested no hesitancy in showing their preference for some handsome young hunter or warrior, and in urging upon him their love. Smith was treated with the greatest kindness, even with polite attentions. He was embarrassed with the innumerable invitations he had to " dine out." The Indians had no particular hours for their meals. It was their custom to invite every visitor to eat, the moment he entered their wigwams. The Indians themselves seemed to have an unlimited capacity for storing away food. They deemed any refusal to partake of their hospitality as an affront. Smith wished to bring himself into harmony with the customs of his new and kind friends, and often suffered from the amount of food he felt constrained to accept. After the war party had been gone about a week, one morning an aged chief, who, in consequence of his age, had remained at home, invited Smith to go a-hunting with him At the distance of a few miles from the village they discovered very distinct and fresh buffalo tracks. The old chief examined them with extraordinary attention, having his fears evidently aroused. Noiselessly and with the utmost caution he followed the tracks, keenly glancing his eyes in every direction. Smith was much surprised at this singular conduct, and asked why he did not push on more rapidly, so as to get a shot at the buffaloes. " Hush! " exclaimed the chief, putting his hand to his lips. " It may be buffalo ; it may be Catawba." He then added in a low tone of voice : " The Catawbas have long been at war with our tribe. They are the most cunning and wicked people in the world. A few years ago a party of Catawba warriors approached our camp by night. They sent out some spies, mounted on buffalo hoofs, who left their tracks around our camp, and then returned to the main body. In the morning, our warriors seeing HISTORY OF OHIO - 85 the buffalo tracks, set out in pursuit of the herd. They soon fell into an ambush, were fired upon and many were killed. " We fought them fiercely. They soon gave way. We pursued them. In anticipation of this they had stuck a number of slender reeds in the grass, sharpened at the end, and dipped in rattlesnake poison. Our young men pursuing headlong were several of them pricked by these poisoned reeds. Many were thus killed and scalped. The Catawba," added the chief, " is a very bad Indian; a perfect devil for mischief." A careful examination of the tracks at length convinced the chief that they were the veritable footprints of the buffalo. The herd had, however, wandered too far to be overtaken. A few days after this Smith, who seemed to have secured the entire confidence of his new friends, set out alone upon a hunting excursion. The primeval forest, in all its gloom and grandeur, spread far and wide around him in an unbroken solitude. Anxious to return laden with game in evidence of his enterprise and skill, he struck out boldly, following, with hurried footsteps, the winding path of a fresh buffalo trail. With eager steps he pressed on several miles, not sufficiently observing the direction in which he moved. Evening came on, and conscious that he was far from home, he determined to cut across the hills, and thus reach the village by a shorter way. He soon found himself bewildered, and utterly lost in the inextricable mazes of the forest. He fired his gun several times, hoping to obtain some responsive signal from his friends. But the wail of the forest, as the night breeze swept its branches, alone greeted his ear. Through the whole night he wandered unable to find his way home. In the morning a party of the Indians set out in search of him. They could scarcely conceive of any one being so stupid as to lose his way in the woods. Some of them suspected that he had deserted them. They followed his trail with that wonderful Indian sagacity which is almost miraculous. Soon, observing the zigzag manner in which he had marched, they became satisfied that the white man, like a child, had got lost. Shouts of derisive laughter burst from their lips. At length they found him. Though they still treated him kindly, he was mortified in seeing how contemptuously they regarded his unfortunate adventure. Upon their return to the village the chief took from him his rifle, saying : " A child should 86 - HISTORY OF OHIO. not be entrusted with the weapons of a man." A bow and arrows, the weapons of a boy, were then placed in his hands. It was deemed necessary that he, an ignorant white man, should be placed under a sort of tutelage. They, therefore, entrusted him to the care of a chief named Tontileango, a renowned hunter and warrior. Under his kind instructions he learned many things which he had never known before. He was taught the difficult art of trapping beaver, how to creep within gun-shot of the timid and watchful deer, how safely to encounter the ferocious grizzly bear, and in what way to pursue and overtake the swift-footed buffalo. Smith proved to be an apt scholar. He was very ambitious and learned rapidly. During the autumn he acquired a high reputation for the skill he displayed. Day after day he returned from his hunting excursions laden with game, to the great joy of the women and children who were entirely dependent upon the hunters for their subsistence. Winter came with its freezing blasts, and snow fell to the depth of four or five feet on a level. Hunting became exceedingly difficult. It was almost impossible to approach within gun-shot of the long-legged deer. The only resource then was to hunt bears. They would climb some gigantic decayed tree, half dead, which had an opening and a hollow in the trunk many feet, often fifty, from the ground. Here the bears would find shelter for snu winter quarters. The interior was generally dry as tinder, and by dropping in some coals could be easily set on fire. The bear hunter would climb the tree and apply a torch to th inside of the hollow. If a bear were there he would be speedil waked from his winter doze and driven out by the flame an smoke. The hunter, watching below, as soon as the immens creature, blinded and bewildered, emerged from his retreat, would with unerring aim, plant a bullet between his eyes, and the mons ter would fall, in dying struggles, into the snow beneath. The life of the Indian, Mr. Smith describes, as full of extreme At one time he would be feasting in abundance ; again he would b starving. There were certain seasons of war and successful hun ing when all his energies, mental and physical, would be raised their utmost tension. Again there would be a season of the utte listlessness and indolence, with absolutely nothing to interest th mind or occupy the body. Generally in the months of Augus HISTORY OF OHIO - 87 and September the ears of corn were ripe for roasting. This was the Indians' season for Lent. He then partook of but little animal food. Hunting was with him a toil, not a pastime. Having gorged himself with roasted corn, he felt no disposition to shoulder his rifle and make long and tiresome marches through the forest, lugging home upon his shoulders the small game, or sending his wife and daughters far into the wilderness to bear upon their backs the heavy burdens of quarters of deer and bears. In what we called savage, as well as in civilized life, the departments of men's and women's work are quite distinctly defined. In American and European communities the men are not expected to cook the dinner, to sweep the rooms, to wash the dishes and make the beds. With the Indians, the men were not expected to bring the water, to skin the deer or the buffalo, or to bring home the venison. An Indian woman would have felt as much dishonored and mortified in seeing her lordly husband return from the chase with a deer upon his back, as an American woman would feel in having her husband habitually wash the dishes or sweep the rooms. The hunter might, in accordance with established etiquette, take an Indian pony with him and load him down with the game he had taken. During the season of lethargy the Indian hunter spends his time dosing in the sunshine, upon the grass, or upon the couch of skins and leaves in his wigwam. They had occasional dances, such as we have described, with the matrons and girls. Foot-ball was a favorite pastime with them. They also had a gambling game somewhat resembling dice, of which they were immoderately fond. Mr. Burnet, in his Notes, gives the following account of a game of foot-ball which the renowned chief Bu-kon-ge-he-las got up on the River Auglaise to entertain a party of white men who visited him. This Indian village was beautifully situated in the center of a large green and level plain. The game was arranged for the afternoon. The chief selected two young men to get a purse of trinkets made up, to be the reward of the successful party. That matter was soon accomplished, and the whole village, male and female, in their best attire, were on the lawn—which was a plain of four or five acres, thickly covered with blue grass. At each of the opposite extremes of this lawn two stakes were set up about six feet apart. 88 - HISTORY OF OHIO. The men played against the women ; and, to countervail the superiority of their strength, it was a rule of the game that they were not to touch the ball with their hands on the penalty of forfeiting the purse. The females had the privilege of using their hands as well as their feet. They were allowed to pick up the ball and run and throw it as far as their strength and activity would permit. When one of the women or girls succeeded in getting the ball, the men were allowed to seize her, whirl her around, and, if necessary, throw her on the grass for the purpose of disengaging the ball, taking care not to touch it except with their feet. The contending parties arranged themselves in the center of the lawn ; the men on one side, the women on the other. Each party faced the goal of its opponent. The side which succeeded in driving the ball through the stakes at the goal of its adversary, was proclaimed victor, and received the purse. All matters being thus arranged, the venerable chief came upon the lawn, and saying something in the Indian language, not understood by his guests, threw up the ball and retired. The contest then began. The parties were pretty equally matched as to numbers, there being abofit one hundred on each side. For a long time the victory appeared to be doubtful. The young girls were the most active of their party, and most frequently caught the ball. It was very • amusing to see the struggle between them and the young men. It generally terminated in the prostration of the girl upon the grass, before the ball could be forced from her hand. The contest continued about an hour, with great animation and various prospects of success. It was finally decided in favor of the women. One athletic girl seized the ball, and triumphing over all the efforts to wrench it from her, rushed toward the goal and succeeded in throwing it through the stakes. Great was the exultation of the victors. Their countenances beamed with joy. It seemed to add greatly to the appreciation of their triumph, that it was gained in the presence of their distinguished white guests. One day Smith, seeing the women and young girls at work in the cornfield, took a hoe and joined them, working diligently, very much to their amusement, half an hour. One of the chiefs severely reprimanded him for the impropriety of his conduct, HISTORY OF OHIO - 89 saying that it was inconsistent with the dignity of a warrior to descend to the drudgery of woman's work. " I hope for the future," he added, " you will demean yourself more properly, and remember that you are a member of a tribe of warriors, and have been adopted into a noble family." Hospitality has ever been one of the distinguishing traits of Indian character. Whenever a stranger enters a wigwam, food, the best the lodge affords, was immediately placed before him. And it was considered a great breach of politeness not to accept the refreshment. It was no excuse that one had just been eating to repletion. If it so happened that there were no food in the house, which not unfrequently was the fact, it was immediately mentioned, and was invariably accepted as an all-sufficient apology. On one occasion the chief, Tontileango, and Smith, were absent from the village on a distant hunting excursion. They had paddled, in a birch canoe, several miles up one of the numerous rivers in that vicinity. They had taken with them some choice stores, such as sugar and bear's oil, which were esteemed great delicacies. Leaving their stores in the canoe, which was moored on the banks of the stream, they proceeded about a mile into the forest, until they came to good hunting ground, where they built a comfortable camp and kindled their fire. The chief, leaving Smith to attend to sundry domestic labors, took his rifle and disappeared in the woods in search of game for supper. Shortly after his departure, a Wyandott hunter, who had been unsuccessful, came across the camp. He was hungry, faint and weary. Smith received him, as he supposed, with true Indian hospitality, feeding him abundantly with hominy and some venison, which he chanced to have on hand. The Wyandott, thus refreshed, went on his way rejoicing. When Tontileango returned, Smith informed him of the visit of the stranger, and of his hospitable reception. The chief listened with much gravity to his report, and then said : " I suppose, of course, that you went to the canoe and brought up, for your guest, the sugar and bear's oil which we left there." " No," Smith replied, " I never thought of that. The canoe was so far off that it would have been too much trouble." " Well, brother," the chief replied with much solemnity of manner, "you have not behaved like a warrior. But as you are 90 - HISTORY OF OHIO. young, and have been brought up among the white people, and consequently know no better, I can excuse you for this time. But you must learn to behave like a warrior. Never allow yourself again to be remiss in the rites of hospitality, that you may avoid trouble. Never be caught again in such a little action. Great actions alone make great men." The, power of the Indians of enduring long-continued fasting and fatigue, was extraordinary. Even the women, with heavy burdens upon their backs, would travel as fast and far as any pack horse. In the Spring of the year, 1756, a large quantity of game was killed at a considerable distance from the village where Smith resided. The amount was so large, and the danger of its being devoured by wild beasts so great, that the whole community, including the women and the boys, turned out to bring it home. Smith took upon his shoulders three large pieces of buffalo meat. After bearing the heavy burden for several miles, he became utterly exhausted, and was compelled to throw down the load. An Indian woman, who was marching gaily along, under an equal burden, laughed heartily at his discomfiture, and took up a large part of the meat which he had thrown down, and added it to her own load. An Indian could not run, for a short distance, any swifter than an athletic white man. But the Indians were capable of sustaining the exertion of running for an incredible length of time. One of their renowned runners would frequently continue at a rapid pace for twelve or fourteen hours, even without taking any nourishment. Then, after a hasty meal, and a very brief season of repose, he would resume his course, apparently without any exhaustion. Smith found that he could never compete with the Indians in this respect. While Smith and the Chief Tontileango were encamped at some distance from the village, it was necessary for them to carry their game home on their shoulders. It was winter, and the ground was white with snow. There were three wild horses grazing near them, finding grass in abundance on a large treeless plain beneath the snow. It had been found impossible to catch the horses, and the chief suggested that they should run them down. " Smith, having but little relish for the undertaking, urged the impossibility of success. But Tontileango replied, that he had HISTORY OF OHIO - 91 frequently run down bear, deer, elk and buffalo, and believed. that, in the course of a day and night, he would run down any four-footed animal except the wolf. Smith observed, that, although deer were swifter than horses for a short distance, yet, that a horse could run much longer than either the elk or buffalo, and that he was confident that they would tire themselves to no purpose. The other insisted upon making the experiment at any rate ; and at daylight, on a cold day in February, and on a hard. snow several inches deep the race began. The two hunters stripped themselves to their moccasins and started at full speed. The horses were in very high order, and very wild, but contented themselves with running in a circle of six or seven miles in circumference, and would not abandon their usual grazing ground. "At ten o'clock Smith had dropped considerably astern, and before eleven Tontileango and the horses were out of sight, the Indian keeping close at their heels, and allowing them no time for rest. Smith, naked as he was, and glowing with exercise, threw himself upon the hard snow ; and having cooled himself in this manner, he remained stationary until three o'clock in the evening, when the horses again came in view, their flanks smoking like a seething keetle, and Tontileango close behind them, running with undiminished speed. Smith being now perfectly fresh, struck in ahead of Tontileango, and compelled the horses to quicken their speed, while his Indian brother, from behind, encouraged him to do his utmost, after shouting, Chako chakoanough ! (pull away, pull away my boy). " Had Tontileango thought of resting, and committed the chase to Smith alone, for some hours, and then in his return relieved him, they might have succeeded ; but neglecting this plan, they both continued the chase until dark, when, perceiving that the horses ran still with great vigor, they dispaired of success, and returned to the camp, having tasted nothing since morning, and one of them, at least, having run nearly one hundred miles. Tontileango was somewhat crestfallen at the result of the race, and grumbled not a little at their long wind ; but Smith assured him that they had attempted an impossibility, and he became reconciled to their defeat." CHAPTER V, INDIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. PARENTAL DISCIPLINE - THE IGNOMINY OF WHIPPING - REMARKABLE ACT OF THE CONJUROR - INDIAN MILITARY DISCIPLINE - BRADDOCK'S FOLLY - HUNTING ADVENTURE - A NIGHT IN THE HOLLOW TREE - ESCAPE - RECEPTION AT THE CAMP - SPEECH OF THE INDIAN CHIEF THE INTEMPERATE CAROUSAL - A HUNTING EXPEDITION - FORTITUDE OF TE-CAUGH-NE-TA-NE-GO - PROVIDENTIAL DELIVERANCE - PIETY AND PRAYER OF THE AGED CHIEF. THE DISCIPLINE which the Indians exercised over their children was peculiar, and, by no means, as severe as might have been expected. Whipping was considered a very disgraceful punishment, and was seldom inflicted. The ordinary punishment for misconduct consisted in ducking the offender in cold water. In winter this was an infliction which the children greatly dreaded. Smith witnessed one scene of punishment. The chief Tontileanga was married to an Indian woman of the Wyandot tribe. She was a widow with several children. One of these boys in some way offended his father-in-law, He whipped the boy, though not severely, with a strap of buffalo hide. The boy shrieked with all the strength of his stentorian lungs. This called out the mother, and she instantly took the part of her child. The husband very calmly explained the offense, stated the necessity that the child should be punished, and urged the moderation of the punishment inflicted. But the indignant mother was not to be appeased. She felt that her boy had been disgraced by corporal punishment. " The child was no slave," she exclaimed, " to be beaten and scourged with a whip. His father was a warrior and a Wyandot, and the son of such a sire is entitled to honorable usage. If he has offended his step-father, there is cold water enough to be had. HISTORY OF OHIO - 93 Let him be ducked until he is brought to reason, and I will not utter one word of complaint ; but a buffalo strap is no weapon with which the son of a warrior should be struck. The spirit of his father is frowning in the skies at the degradation of his child." Tontileango listened imperturbably to these rebukes. He then, without speaking a word, lit his pipe and strolled away, to give his wife's anger time to cool. But the offense in her eyes was of the most serious nature. Her child had been, as she judged, degraded. She caught a horse, and mounting it with her children, set out to return to her father's home, which was distant about forty miles. In the afternoon Tontileango returned to the cabin. He found that his family had abandoned him, and that there was no one there but Smith. He seemed very much troubled, uttered several very expressive pathetic ejaculations,, and soon followed his offended wife to win her back again. There are many things occurring in this world which are not explainable upon any known principles of human philosophy. The Indians were very superstitious, and their conjurors were held in great estimation. They were generally aged men, of very serious and dignified bearing. Upon one occasion, when Tontileango, Smith and a few other prominent Indians were out on a hunting excursion, they were very hospitably received, for the night, in a small Indian encampment on the southern shore of Lake Erie. In the evening an Indian woman came running into the camp, in a state of great alarm, saying that she had seen two warriors, armed with rifles, on the other side of a small creek near by, apparently spying out their position. It was at once supposed that they belonged to the hostile and war-renowned tribe of the Mohawks; that a large party of these fierce warriors were hidden, and that, before morning, the camp would be attacked by a resistless force. Great was the consternation. The women and children were sent into the woods, to be secreted there ; the warriors all retired from the light of their fires, and in the dark took their stations, rifle in hand, to await the approach of the foe. The venerable conjuror, Manetohcoa by name, alone remained in the full blaze of the camp fires. Apparently unconscious or regardless of any danger, he was busily employed in the necromantic arts. He had provided himself with the white and polished shoulder-blade of a wild cat. He then bound together some carefully-selected tobacco leaves with some gorgeously-colored. 94 - HISTORY OF OHIO. feathers. These he burned, fumigating himself with the smoke, and at the same time heating the shoulder-blade by the fire. He expected to see come out, in distinct delineation, upon the bone, images of the Mohawk warriors, and in such a way that he could in some degree judge of their numbers. But to his surprise, real or feigned, as he carefully examined the smooth bone, he saw the figures of two wolves rise upon its surface. He immediately called out to the warriors in ambush that the woman had been deceived, that there was no enemy near, and that she had mistaken the wolves for the Mohawks. The Indians, reposing implicit confidence in their conjuror, unhesitatingly returned to the camp. The next morning several of them crossed the creek for exploration, and actually found the tracks of two wolves just at the spot where the affrighted woman fancied that she had seen the warriors. The military principles of the Indians were very simple, and yet admirably adapted to the mode of warfare in which they were accustomed to engage. Their principal features were caution and cunning rather than recklessness and boldness. It is by no means correct to suppose that they were without military discipline. They had carefully studied and clearly defined manceuvers, in the performance of which they were remarkably alert and intelligent. Very promptly they would form their whole force in line, each one seeking the protection of some tree, stump or log. The Indians admitted that it might be very brave for two regiments of white men to face each other on the open prairie, and shoot until one or the other were virtually annihilated, but they did not deem such recklessness of daring to be wisdom. In forming a line of battle, the warriors were ever careful to protect their flanks. Not unfrequently, when assaulted by a superior force, they would form in a large hollow square, such as the instructed skill of Napoleon taught him to adopt in contending with the Mamelukes of Egypt. Each movement of the troops, for advance, retreat, concentration or dispersion, was indicated by a loud signal-whoop from the leader, varying in its intonations. The folly which General Braddock manifested in his fatal march, excited their constant derision. Immediately after the dreadful massacre of Braddock's army, on the Monongahela, the Indians assured Smith that the " Long Knives acted like fools. " They (lid not know enough," said one of the chiefs, " either to fight or HISTORY OF OHIO - 95 run away. They huddled themselves together so that we could completely surround them, and shoot them down at our leisure, without any danger to ourselves. They gave us the best possible opportunity." General Grant, with the advance guard of General Forbes' army, marched upon Fort Duquesne, in the year 1757. With great celerity and secrecy, he pressed through the trails of the forest, in a night march, and took position upon a forest-crowned hill, above the fort, before the dawn of the morning. He then, exulting in his achievement, by way of bravado, caused the drums to beat and the bagpipes to play, as if to inform the enemy of his arrival. The wary Indians, thus instructed, stole out from the fort, and creeping along beneath the protection of ravines, bushes and forest, placed themselves in an ambush, guided by the camp-fires of the foe, and every man selected his victim. Just as the day was dawning, when there was light enough to take deliberate aim, they commenced the assault. Grant's army, in a very short time, was nearly annihilated. A venerable warrior, an Caugnewaughna chief, speaking of this, their victory, to Mr. Smith, said : "The conduct of General Grant was to me totally inexplicable. The great art of war consists in ambushing and surprising your enemy, and in preventing yourself from being surprised. General Grant acted like a skillful warrior in coming secretly upon us. But his subsequent conduct, in giving us the alarm, instead of falling upon us with the bayonet, was very extraordinary. I can only account for it by supposing that Grant, like too many other warriors, was fond of rum, and had become drunk." The Indians had a supreme contempt for any man who was ignorant of what may be called woodcraft. It will be remembered that Smith had been degraded from the rank of a warrior and reduced to that of a boy, for allowing himself to be lost in the woods. About two years after this event, he went out in midwinter with Tontileango, and several other warriors, on a hunting expedition. It was very severe weather, and the ground was covered with snow one or two feet deep. As they were moving along, late in the afternoon, several miles from their camp, they came across the tracks of a number of raccoons. Smith was directed to follow them. The tracks were quite fresh in the snow, and it was supposed that the animals would soon be found treed, where they could easily be shot. 96 - HISTORY OF OHIO. Smith was, however, led to a much greater distance than he anticipated, and still found no raccoons. Night was coming on,, dark, tempestuous and fiercely cold. The wintry gale rose to a perfect hurricane, and the gigantic trees were swayed like willow twigs by the blast. The smothering snow blinded his eyes, and entirely obliterated all the tracks he had made. He had only a bow and arrows, with neither gun nor flint with which he could. strike a fire. He had a single blanket to wrap around him, and a tomahawk in his belt. Soon night enveloped him in its gloom. To stop would be inevitable death by freezing. So he stumbled along over stumps and stones, bewildered and exhausted, while the snow-flakes fell so, thick that he could not see whither he was going. He shouted again and again for help, but his voice was lost in the rush and roar of the storm. His situation seemed utterly desperate, and. he began to think that his last hour had come. As he was thus toiling along he providentially came upon a. gigantic sycamore tree, a venerable patriarch of the Ohio forest, which had apparently numbered its centuries. The decaying tree was hollow, leaving a large cavity inside with an entrance about eighteen inches wide and three or four feet high. But this entrance faced the storm which was beating against it and into it with all violence. Smith, with his tomahawk, cut a number of sticks, which he placed upright against the hole, together with a quantity of brush,, leaving open just sufficient space for him to creep in. He then entered, taking with him pieces of decayed wood with which he stopped every chink which would admit 'snow or wind. The cheerless little cabin which he had thus created for himself, was six or seven feet high and about three feet in diameter. When thus hermetically sealed there was midnight darkness around him. The floor was covered with snow, and the flakes, driven fiercely by the wind, soon drifted up, effectually banking him in, and completely sheltering him from the storm. For two hours he jumped up and down in his cell, to warm himself by causing the more rapid circulation of his blood. Then wrapping himself in his blanket, and leaning against the side of the tree, he fell soundly asleep and did not awake for several hours. When he awoke he was still surrounded with midnight darkness. But as he attempted to force his way out through the bar- HISTORY OF OHIO - 97 ricade he had reared, he found that the snow and ice held him with bars of strength which he could not sunder. He strained every nerve but could make no impression upon the barrier. He became terror stricken, fearing that he was buried alive. Again he sat down, meditating upon what he should do, and, from utter exhaustion, again fell asleep. How long he slept he knew not. But, upon awaking, he went to work with his hatchet in the impenetrable darkness. After long labor he succeeded in cutting away one stick and then another, and finally burrowed his way out, into the open air. The snow had fallen to the depth of four feet on a level, and was piled up in an immense bank against the brush and sticks with which he had closed the entrance to his cell. He was no longer a novice in the science of the woods. By examining the moss upon the trees he ascertained the points of the compass, and, after the excessive toil of wading through the snow for several hours, he reached the encampment of his friends. They received him with shouts of joy and congratulation. But singularly enough their politeness did not allow them to ask a single question until they had placed venison, hominy and sugar before him, and he had partaken of an ample meal. Then the principal chief, a dignified and venerable man, presented him with his own pipe, filled and lighted, and all sat in perfect silence until Smith, smoking, had emptied the bowl. The patriarchal chief, whose name was Tecaughnetanego, then addressed Smith affectionately and mildly as if he were a child. " My son," said he, " we wish now to hear a particular account of the manner in which you passed the night." Smith began his story, and went through it from beginning to end. Not a word was spoken by the Indians in the way of questions, or in expression of wonder, or censure, or approval, until he had finished his narrative. Then he was greeted on all sides with shouts of approbation. Tecaughnetanego rose and said in dignified and stately utterance : " My son, your courage and hardihood and presence of mind are highly to be commended. If you will go on as you have begun you may one day make a great man. We all rejoice in your safety as much as we had mourned over your supposed death. We were preparing our snow shoes to go in search of you when you appeared. As you had been brought up effeminately 7 98 - HISTORY OF OHIO. among the white men, we never expected to see you alive. I now promote you from the rank of a boy to that of a warrior. As soon as we sell our skins in the Spring, at Detroit, we will purchase for you a rifle." . This promise they faithfully performed. The Indians, as is well known, were very fond of intoxicating drinks ; but their habits in this respect were peculiar. They would have an occasional carouse, when they would indulge to the greatest excess. For this they would make ample preparation, laying aside their arms, and appointing a committee to keep sober and watch over them that they might not inflict any injury upon each other. They would, after such a frantic revel, often for a long time remain sober. The women were as much addicted to this practice as the men. Some of the more noble of the Indians were indeed remarkably temperate. They perceived the ruin which intemperance was producing upon their race, and earnestly entreated the white men not to sell to the Indians the destructive fire-water. At one time Smith accompanied a large party of Ohio Indians to a trading post, where they disposed of their beaver skins and other furs. They first supplied themselves with ammunition and blankets; they then, having some surplus funds, purchased a keg of rum. All then met together in council, and deliberately decided to have a drunken carouse. A few of their strong-bodied warriors were set apart, who were to remain perfectly sober. They were to watch during the revel, and carefully protect the inebriates from serious harm. Smith was courteously invited to join in the carousal, with the distinct understanding that he was to drink to the same degree of intoxication with the rest. As this invitation was declined, Smith was told that he must join the sober party, and assist in keeping order. Before the riotous and frenzied revel commenced, the warriors carefully laid aside their tomahawks and knives. The scene which ensued was fearful in its manaical violence. The Indians were inflamed to frenzy ; their wild passions were roused to the utmost intensity. Though no lives were lost many were seriously wounded. Near by there was an encampment of Ottawa Indians. They also had a similar carouse, but with more deplorable results. Not only were many seriously wounded, but several warriors were killed. The Ottawas continued their orgies until all their money was spent. Then, with aching heads and saddened hearts, they HISTORY OF OHIO - 99 buried their dead, gathered up their wounded, and returned to the wilderness. In their sober hours some cursed the white man for tempting them with the fire-water. The penalty which attends such folly fell, with more or less severity, upon each one engaged in the insane revelry. One poor Indian lost his blanket, which was thrown into the fire and burned, and he had no money with which to replace it. The beautifully colored and fringed hunting-shirt of another was torn from his back and rendered utterly useless. Others had been bruised and maimed, and nearly all had been impoverished. Though the Indians were the children of superstition, and many absurdities were mingled with their religious rites, still they had very decided conceptions of a supreme being, and of life beyond the grave. One Great Spirit was universally recognized. The different tribes addressed him by different names. He was, however, more generally called the Manito. As the Indians were dependent upon game for all their meat, and as they were not unfrequently unsuccessful in hunting or the chase, their supply of food was often very precarious. Upon one occasion Smith, with the aged chief, Tecaughnetanego, and an Indian lad, but ten years of age, named Nungany, were encamped at a great distance, in the forest, from the village of the rest of the tribe. The sedate and venerable chief had passed his three-score years. Though a skillful hunter, he was quite infirm, suffering often excruciating pain from rheumatism, which, at times, disabled him entirely, rendering it impossible for him to move his limbs. Smith was a young hunter, and unprepared to grapple with great difficulties. The boy was mainly employed in the camp in dressing and cooking the game which the chief brought in. Their camp was a comfortable wigwam of conical form, with the floor covered with fragrant hemlock boughs, and the skins of wolves and bears. The sides lined with various kinds of furs. A cheerful fire blazed in the center, the smoke ascending through a hole in the roof. The whole aspect of the interior was one of shelter, warmth and comfort, far more attractive to the eye of taste than many a stately parlor of modern times. It was midwinter. The snow was deep and the cold very severe. The old chief, suffering from an attack of rheumatism, was prostrate upon a couch of skins, unable to move. A severe