of Ball.-The Indians also attacked them at the same instant they did Mr. Scott's; but the door being shut the enemy fired into the house through an opening between two logs, and killed a young lad; they then essayed to force the door open, but a surviving brother fired through the door, and the enemy desisted, and went off: the remaining part of the family ran out of the house and escaped. In Mr. Scott's house were four good rifles, well loaded, and a good deal of clothing, and furniture, part of which belonged to people that had left it on their way to Kentucky. The Indians loaded themselves with the plunder, being 13 in number, then speedly made off, and continued travelling all night; next morning their chief allotted to each man his share; and detached nine of the party to steal horses from the inhabitants on Clinch. The eleventh day after Mrs. Scott's captivity the four Indians that had her in charge, stopped at a place fixed upon for a rendezvous, and to hunt, being now in great want of provisions. Three went out, and the chief, being an old man, was left to take care of the prisoner, who, by this time, expressed a willingness to proceed to the Indian towns, which seemed to have the desired effect of lessening her keeper's vigilance. In the day time, as the old man was graining a deer skin, the captive pondering on her situation, and anxiously looking for an opportunity to make her escape, took the resolution, and went to the Indian carelessly, asked liberty to go a small distance to a stream of water, to wash the blood off her apron, that had remained besmeared since the fatal night of the murder of her little daughter. He told her, in the English tongue, "go along;" she then passed by him, his face being in a contrary direction from that she was going, and he

very busy. She, after getting to the water, proceeded on without delay, made to a high barren mountain, and travelled until late in the evening, when she came down into the valley, in search of the track she had been taken along; hoping thereby to find the way back, without the risk of being lost, and perishing of hunger in uninhabited parts. On coming across the valley to the river side, supposed to be the easterly branch of Kentucky river, she observed in the sand tracks of two men, that had gone up the river, and had just returned. She concluded these to have been her pursuers, which excited emotions of gratitude and thankfulness to divine providence for so timely a deliverance. Being without any provisions, having no kind of weapon or tool to assist her in getting any, and being almost destitute of clothing, also knowing that a vast tract of rugged high mountains intervened, between where she was and the inhabitants eastwardly, and the distance of the Kentucky settlements unknown, and she almost as ignorant as a child of the method of steering through the woods, excited painful sensations. But certain death, either by hunger or wild beasts, seemed preferable rather than to be in the power of beings who had excited in her mind such horror. She addressed heaven for protection, and taking courage, proceeded onward. After travelling three days, she had nearly met with the Indians, as she supposed, that had been sent to Clinch to steal horses, but providentially hearing their approach, concealed herself among the cane, until the enemy had passed. This giving a fresh alarm, and her mind being filled with consternation, she got lost, proceeding backwards and forwards for several days; at length she came to a river, that seemed to come from the east; concluding it was

Sandy river, she resolved to trace it to its source, which is adjacent to the Clinch settlement. After proceeding up the same several days, she came to where the river runs through the great Laurel mountain, where is a prodigious water-fall, and numerous high, craggy cliffs along the water edge; that way seemed impassable, the the mountain steep and difficult: However, our mournful traveller concluded that the latter way was the test. She therefore ascended for sometime, but coming to a range of inaccessible rocks, she turned her course towards the foot of the mountain and the river side: after getting into a deep gulley, and passing over several high, steep rocks, she reached the river side, where to her inexpressible affliction, she found that a perpendicular rock, or rather one that hung over, of 15 or 20 feet high, formed the bank. Here a solemn pause took place; she essayed to return, but the height of the steeps and rocks she had passed over, prevented her. She then returned to the edge of the precipice, and viewed the bottom of it, as the certain spot to end all her troubles, to remain on the top to pine away with hunger, or be devoured by wild beasts. After serious meditation, and devout exercises, she determined on leaping from the height, and accordingly jumped off. Although the place she had to alight on was covered with uneven rocks, not a bone was broken; but, being exceedingly stunned by the fall, she remained unable to proceed for some space of time. The dry season caused the river to be shallow -she travelled in it, and where she could, by its edge until she got through the mountain, which she concluded was several miles. After this, as she was travelling along the bank of the river, a venomous snake bit her on the ancle: she had strength to kill it, and knowing its kind,

concluded that death must soon overtake her. By this time, Mrs. Scott was reduced to a mere skeleton with fatigue, hunger and grief: probably this state of her body was the means of preserving her from the effects of the poison: be that as it may, very little pain succeeded the bite, and what little swelling there was, fell into her feet. Our wanderer now left the river, and after proceeding a good distance, she came to where the valley passed into two, each leading a different course.Here a painful suspense again took place: a forlorn creature, almost exhausted, and certain if she was far led out of the way, she would never see a human creature-During this soliloquy, a beautiful bird passed close by her, fluttering along the ground, and went out of sight up one of the valleys. This drew her attention, and whilst considering what it might mean, anothe bird of the same appearance in like manner fluttered past her, and took the same valley the other had done. This determined her choice of the way; and in two days, which was the 11th day of August, she reached that settlement on Clinch, called New Garden; whereas (she is since informed by wood-men) had she taken the other valley, it would have led her back towards the Ohio.

Mrs. Scott relates that the Indians told her, that the party was composed of four different nations, two of whom she thinks they named Delawares and Mingoes. She further relates, that during her wandering from the tenth of July to the eleventh of August, she had no other subsistence but chewing and swallowing the juice of young cane stalks, Sassafras leaves, and some other plants she did not know the names of; that, on her journey, she saw Buffaloes, Elks, Deer, and frequently Bears and Wolves; not one of which, although some

passed very near her, offered to do her the least harm. One day a Bear came near her, with a young Fawn in his mouth, and, on discovering her he dropped his prey and ran off. Hunger prompted her to go and take the flesh and eat it: but, on reflection, she desisted, thinking that the Bear might return and devour her; besides, she had an aversion to taste raw flesh. Mrs. Scott continues in a low state of health, and remains inconsolable for the loss of her family, particularly bewailing the cruel death of her little daughter.

The Trial of MAMACHTAGA, an Indian, at a Court of Oyer and Terminer for the County of Westmoreland, in the year 1784-5..

I

KNOW the particulars of the following story well, because one of the men (Smith) was shingling a house for me in the town of Pittsburgh, the evening before he was murdered by Mamachtaga, and for which murder, and some others, this Indian was tried.-Smith had borrowed a blanket of me, saying that he was about to cross the river (Allegheny) to the Indian camp on the west side. Here a party of Indians, mostly Delawares, had come in, it being just after the war, and the greater part of these Indians having professed themselves friendly during the war, and their chief, Killbuck, with his family and that of several others, having remained at the garrison, or on an island in the Ohio river, called Killbuck's Island, and under the reach of the guns of the fort. Mamachtaga had been at war against the settlements with others of the Delawares who were now at this encampment.