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NARRATIVE

OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE SETTLEMENT OF GREENBRIER, VIRGINIA, TOGETHER WITH THE CAPTURE AND SURPRISING CONDUCT OF MRS. CLENDENIN, WHO WAS AMONG THOSE WHO ESCAPED THE TOMAHAWK OF THE INDIANS AT THAT MASSACRE.

[Whether the following narrative was ever in print, except as it stands in Mr. Martin's Gazetteer of Virginia, I have never learned. It would seem from the following note accompanying it in that work, "that it was extracted from memoirs of Indian wars on the western frontiers of Virginia, communicated to the Philosophical Society of Virginia, by Charles A. Stuart, Esq., of Augusta Co."-Ed.]

AFTER peace was confirmed between England and France in the year 1761, the Indians commenced hostilities in 1763,* when all the inhabitants in Greenbrier were totally cut off by a party of Indians, headed by the chief warrior Cornstalk.t The principal settlements were on Muddy Creek. These Indians, in number about sixty, introduced themselves into the people's houses under the mask of friendship, where every civility was offered them by the people, providing them with

*Hostilities had not ceased between the whites and the Indians, as will be seen by a reference to the CHRONICLES OF THE INDIANS for this and the preceding years.-Ed.

†The life and barbarous death of this great chief are given at length in the BOOK OF THE INDIANS, v. 42, 44.-Ed.

victuals and other accommodations for their entertainment, when, on a sudden, they fall upon and kill the men, and make prisoners of the women and children. From thence they passed over into the Levels, where some families were collected at the house of Archibald Clendenin, where the Honorable Balard Smith now lives. There were between fifty and one hundred persons, men, women and children. There the Indians were entertained, as at Muddy Creek, in the most hospitable manner. Mr. Clendenin had just arrived from a hunt, with three fat elks, upon which they were feasted in a bountiful manner.

In the mean time an old woman, with a sore leg, was showing her distress to an Indian, and inquiring if he could administer to her any relief. He said he thought he could, and drawing his tomahawk, instantly killed her, and all the men, almost, that were in the house. One, named Conrad Yolkom, only escaped. He, being at some distance from the house, was alarmed by the cries and shrieks of the women and children, fled with all his might to Jackson's river, and alarmed the people there. They however were loath to believe his tale until they saw the Indians approaching. All fled before them; and they pursued on to Carr's Creek, in Rockbridge county, where many families were killed and taken by them. At Clendenin's a scene of much cruelty was performed, not only by the Indians, but some such as the terrors of their approach influenced thereto. In this I refer to an act committed by a negro woman, who in escaping from the Indians killed her own child, whose cries she had reason to fear would lead to her capture!

Mrs. Clendenin did not fail to abuse the Indians with her tongue, with the most reproachful epithets she could command, although the tomahawk was brandishing at the same moment overhead; but instead of bringing it down upon her, the less effectual means of silencing her clamors was resorted to, namely, lashing her in the face and eyes with the bleeding scalp of her dead husband!

The provisions were all taken over to Muddy Creek, and a party of Indians retained them there till the return of the others from Carr's Creek, when the whole were marched off together. On the day they started from the foot of Kenney's Knob, going over the mountain, Mrs. Clendenin gave her infant child to another female prisoner, to carry, to relieve her for a few paces, and in a few moments after, a favorable opportunity offering for escape, she improved it with such alacrity into a dense thicket which they were at the time pass. ing, that not an Indian saw her or could tell which way she went. The opportunity was rendered more favorable by the

manner in which the Indians at the time were marching They had placed the prisoners in the centre, and dividing themselves into two companies, one marched before them and the other followed in their rear, having each flank open, and this gave her the desired chance of escape.

It was not until all had left the place that the cries of Mrs. Clendenin's child caused the Indians to inquire for its mother. When they found she had made her escape, a monster Indian observed "he would bring the cow to her calf," and taking the infant by the heels, dashed out its brains against a tree! and as though this was not enough, the miscreant throwing it down into the van, the whole company marched over it, the hoofs of the horses tearing out its bowels, and the feet of the Indians tracked the ground as they went with its blood!

He

Mrs. Clendenin returned that night to her own house, a distance of more than ten miles. Here she found her husband's dead body, which she covered with rails. She found him as he had been killed, with one of his children in his arms. was shot down as he was making his escape over a fence. She now returned to her friends; and thus ends the remarkable, though short captivity of a woman, more to be admired for her courage than some other qualities not less desirable in the female character.

NARRATIVE

OF THE CAPTIVITY OF ALEXANDER HENRY, ESQ., WHO, IN THE TIME OF PONTIAK'S WAR, FELL INTO THE HANDS OF THE HURON INDIANS. DETAILING A FAITHFUL ACCOUNT OF THE CAPTURE OF THE GARRISON OF MICHILIMACKINAC, AND THE MASSACRE OF ABOUT NINETY PEOPLE.WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

[Mr. Henry was an Indian trader in America for about sixteen years. He came to Canada with the army of General Amherst, and previous to his being made prisoner by the Indians experienced a variety of fortune. His narrative, as will be seen, is written with great candor as well as ability, and to the discriminating reader needs no encomium. He was living in Montreal in 1809, as appears from the date of his pre face to his Travels, which he published in New York that year, with a dedication to Sir Joseph Banks.-Ed.]

WHEN I reached Michilimackinac I found several other traders, who had arrived before me, from different parts of the country, and who, in general, declared the dispositions of the Indians to be hostile to the English, and even apprehended

some attack. M. Laurent Ducharme distinctly informed Major Etherington that a plan was absolutely conceived for destroying him, his garrison and all the English in the upper country; but the commandant believing this and other reports to be without foundation, proceeding only from idle or ill-disposed persons, and of a tendency to do mischief, expressed much displeasure against M. Ducharme, and threatened to send the next person who should bring a story of the same kind, a prisoner, to Detroit.

The garrison, at this time, consisted of ninety privates, two subalterns and the commandant; and the English merchants at the fort were four in number. Thus strong, few entertained anxiety concerning the Indians, who had no weapons but small

arms.

Meanwhile, the Indians, from every quarter, were daily assembling, in unusual numbers, but with every appearance of friendship, frequenting the fort, and disposing of their peltries, in such a manner as to dissipate almost every one's fears. For myself, on one occasion, I took the liberty of observing to Major Etherington that, in my judgment, no confidence ought to be placed in them, and that I was informed no less than four hundred lay around the fort.

In return the major only rallied me on my timidity; and it is to be confessed that if this officer neglected admonition, on his part, so did I on mine. Shortly after my first arrival at Michilimackinac, in the preceding year, a Chippeway, named Wawatam, began to come often to my house, betraying in his demeanor strong marks of personal regard. After this had continued some time, he came on a certain day, bringing with him his whole family, and at the same time a large present, consisting of skins, sugar and dried meat. Having laid these in a heap, he commenced a speech, in which he informed me that some years before he had observed a fast, devoting himself, according to the custom of his nation, to solitude, and to the mortification of his body, in the hope to obtain, from the Great Spirit, protection through all his days; that on this occasion he had dreamed of adopting an Englishman as his son, brother and friend; that from the moment in which he first beheld me he had recognised me as the person whom the Great Spirit had been pleased to point out to him for a brother; that he hoped that I would not refuse his present; and that he should forever regard me as one of his family.

I could do no otherwise than accept the present, and declare my willingness to have so good a man as this appeared to be for my friend and brother. I offered a present in return for that which I had received, which Wawatam accepted, and then,

thanking me for the favor which he said that I had rendered him, he left me, and soon after set out on his winter's hunt.

Twelve months had now elapsed since the occurrence of this incident, and I had almost forgotten the person of my brother, when, on the second day of June, Wawatam came again to my house, in a temper of mind visibly melancholy and thoughtful. He told me that he had just returned from his wintering ground, and I asked after his health; but without answering my question, he went on to say, that he was sorry to find me returned from the Sault; that he intended to go to that place himself, immediately after his arrival at Michilimackinac; and that he wished me to go there along with him and his family the next morning. To all this he joined an inquiry, whether or not the commandant had heard bad news, adding that during the winter he had himself been frequently disturbed with the noise of evil birds; and further suggesting that there were numerous Indians near the fort, many of whom had never shown themselves within it. Wawatam was about forty-five years of age, of an excellent character among his nation, and a chief.

Referring much of what I heard to the peculiarities of the Indian character, I did not pay all the attention which they will be found to have deserved to the entreaties and remarks of my visitor. I answered that I could not think of going to the Sault so soon as the next morning, but would follow him there after the arrival of my clerks. Finding himself unable to prevail with me, he withdrew for that day; but early the next morning he came again, bringing with him his wife, and a present of dried meat. At this interview, after stating that he had several packs of beaver, for which he intended to deal with me, he expressed a second time his apprehensions, from the numerous Indians who were round the fort, and earnestly pressed me to consent to an immediate departure for the Sault. As a reason for this particular request, he assured me that all the Indians proposed to come in a body, that day, to the fort, to demand liquor of the commandant, and that he wished me to be gone before they should grow intoxicated.

I had made, at the period to which I am now referring, so much progress in the language in which Wawatam addressed me, as to be able to hold an ordinary conversation in it; but the Indian manner of speech is so extravagantly figurative that it is only for a perfect master to follow and comprehend it entirely. Had I been further advanced in this respect, I think that I should have gathered so much information, from this my friendly monitor, as would have put me into possession of the design of the enemy, and enabled me to save as well others as