important subject, as their art of war would not only be of use to us in case of another rupture with them; but were only part of our men taught this art, accompanied with our continental discipline, I think no European power, after trial, would venture to shew its head in the American woods.

If what I have wrote should meet the approbation of my countrymen, perhaps I may publish more upon this subject, in a future edition.

A

NARRATIVE

OF THE

CAFTIVITY OF

JOHN M'CULLOUGH, ESQ.

WRITTEN BY HIMSELF.

The following is an Abridgment of what the Narrator has suffered and seen, during upwards of Eight Years Captivity with the Aborigenes of America. His design in this Essay is, to Illustrate Facts as they occurred, carefully avoiding to exaggerate any thing that has come under his Observation, neither is it his design to give a Geographical Account of the Country he passed through, that having been done already by abler pens.

His endeavour throughout the whole is to make it Intelligible to the meanest capacity; wherever he has deemed it necessary to retain Indian Words-he has divided them into Syllables and Accented the Syllable on which the stress of the word lies, in order to give the Reader an idea of the pronunciation.

I

WAS born in Newcastle county, in the state of Delaware. When I was five years old, my father moved his family from thence to the back parts of then Cumberland (now Franklin) county, to a place well known by the name of Conococheague settlement, where he made a purchase of a tract of land at sheriff's sale, about a year before what has been generally termed Braddock's war.

Shortly after the commencement of the war, he moved his family into York county, where we remained until the spring of 1756, when we ventured home; we had not been long at home until we were alarmed again, we then fled down to Antieatum settlement, where we remained until the beginning of harvest, then ventured home to secure our crops; we stopped about three miles from home, where we got a small cabin to live in until my father went home and secured the grain. On the 26th day of July, 1756, my parents and my oldest sister went home to pull flax, accompanied by one John Allen, a neighbour, who had business at Fort Loudon, and promised to come that way in the evening to accompany them back. Allen had proceeded but about two miles toward Loudon until he heard the Indians had killed a man that morning, about a mile and a half from where my parents were at work; he then, instead of going back to accompany them home agreeable to his promise, took a circuitous route of about six or seven miles, for fear of the Indians. When he came home, my brother and I were playing on the great road, a short distance from the house; he told us to go immediately to the house, or the Indians would catch us, adding, at the same time, that he supposed they had killed our father and mother by that time.

We were small, I was about eight years old, my brother was but five; we went to the house, the people were all in a bustle, making ready to go to a fort about a mile off. I recollect of hearing them say, that somebody should go and give my parents notice; none would venture to go; my brother and me concluded that we would go ourselves, accordingly we laid off our trowsers and went off in our shirts unnoticed by any person,

leaving a little sister about two years old sleeping in bed; when we got in sight of the house we began to halloo and sing, rejoicing that we had got home; when we came within about fifty or sixty yards of the house, all of a sudden the Indians came rushing out of a thicket upon us; they were six in number, to wit, five Indians. and one Frenchman; they divided into two parties; three rushed across the path before, and three behind us. This part of the scene appears to me yet, more like a dream than any thing real: my brother screamed aloud the instant we saw them; for my part, it appeared to me, that the one party were Indians & the other white people: they stopped before us, I was making my way betwixt two of them, when one of the hind party pulled me back by my shirt; they instantly ran up a little hill to where they had left their baggage-there they tied a pair of moccasons on my feet; my brother at that instant broke off from them, running towards the house, screaming as he went; they brought him back, and started off as fast as I was able to run along with them, one of them carrying my brother on his back. We ran along side of the field where my parents were at work, they were only intercepted from our view by a small ridge in the field, that lay parallel to the course we were running-when we had got about seventy or eighty perches from the field, we sat down in a thicket of bushes, where we heard our father calling us; two of the Indians ran off towards the house-but happily missed him, as he had returned back to the field, supposing that we had gone back again. The other four started off with us as fast as I was able to travel along with them, jumping across every road we came to, one catching me by each arm, and slinging me over the road to prevent our tracks from being discovered.

We travelled all that day, observing still when we came to an eminence, one of them would climb up a tree, and point out the course they should take, in order, I suppose, to avoid being discovered. It came on rain towards evening, we travelled on till a good while after night at last we took up our lodging under a large tree, they spread down a blanket for us to lie on, and laid another over us, an Indian laid down on each side of us on the edge of our cover, the rest laid down at our head and feet. At break of day we started again; about sunrise we heard a number of axes at a short distance from us, we also discovered where logs had been dragged on the ground the day before; they immediately took the alarm and made off as quick as possible. Towards evening we stopped on the side of a mountain; two of the Indians and the Frenchman, went down into the valley, leaving one to take care of us: they were not long gone till we heard them shooting, in a short time they came back, carrying a parcel of hogs on their backs, and a fowl they had killed; also a parcel of green apples in their bosoms; they gave us some of the apples, which was the first nourishment we got from the time we were taken. We then went down the mountain into an obscure place, where they kindled a fire and singed the hair of the hogs and roasted them, the fowl they roasted for us; we had not been long there till we heard the war halloo up the run from where we had our fire, the two Indians came to us, whom I mentioned had ran towards the house when they heard my father calling us; they had a scalp with them, by the color of the hair I concluded it had been my father's, but I was mistaken, it was the scalp of the man they killed the morning before they took us; the scalp they made two of, and dried