Графични страници
PDF файл
ePub

the while observing how he would come on with his knife. At length the Indian had got hold of his knife, but so far towards the blade, that Morgan got a small hold on the hinder end; and as the Indian pulled it out of the scabbard, Morgan giving his finger a severe screw with his teeth, twitched it out through his hand, cutting it most grievously. By this time they were both got partly on their feet; the Indian was endeavouring to disengage himself; but Morgan held fast by the finger, and quickly applied the point of the knife to the side of the savage; a bone happening in the way, prevented its penetrating any great depth, but a second blow, directed more towards the belly, found free passage into his bowels. The old man turned the point upwards, made a large wound, burying the knife therein, and so took his departure instantly to the fort, with the news of his adventure.

On the report of Mr. Morgan, a party went out from the fort, and found the first Indian where he had fallen; the second they found not yet dead, at one hundred yards distance from the scene of action, hid in the top of a fallen tree, where he had picked the knife out of his body, after which had come out parched corn, &c., and had bound up his wound with the apron aforementioned; and on first sight he saluted them with, How do do, broder, how do do, broder? But alas! poor savage, their brotherhood to him extended only to tomahawking, scalping, and, to gratify some peculiar feelings of their own, skinning them both; and they have made drum heads of their skins.

Westmoreland, April 26, 1779.

Singular Prowess of a Woman, in a Combat with some Indians. In a Letter to a Lady of this City [Philadelphia.]

I

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

of a very particular affair between a white man and two Indians. I am now to give you a relation in which you will see how a person of your sex acquitted herself in defence of her own life and that of her husband and children.

The lady who is the burthen of this story, is named Experience Bozarth. She lives on a creek called Dunkark creek, in the southwest corner of this county. About the middle of March last, two or three families, who were afraid to stay at home, gathered to her house and there stayed; looking on themselves to be safer than when all scattered about at their own houses.

On a certain day, some of the children thus collected, came running in from play, in great haste, saying, there were ugly red men. One of the men in the house stepped to the door, where he received a ball in the side of his breast, which caused him to fall back into the house. The Indian was immediately in over him, and engaged with another man who was in the house. The man tossed the Indian on a bed, and called for a knife to kill him. (Observe, these were all the men that were in the house.) Now Mrs. Bozarth appears the only defence, who not finding a knife at hand, took up an axe that lay by, and with one blow cut out the brains of the Indian. At that instant, (for all was instantaneous,) a second Indian entered the door, and shot the man dead, who was engaged with the Indian on the bed. Mrs. Bozarth

E

turned to this second Indian, and with her axe gave him several large cuts, some of which let his entrails appear. He bawled out, murder, murder. On this, sundry other Indians (who had hitherto been fully employed, killing some children out of doors) came rushing to his relief; the head of one of these Mrs. Bozarth clave in two with her axe, as he stuck it in at the door, which laid him flat upon the sill. Another snatched hold of the wounded, bellowing fellow, and pulled him out of doors, and Mrs. Bozarth, with the assistance of the man who was first shot in the door, and by this time a little recovered, shut the door after them, and made it fast, where they kept garrison for several days, the dead white man and dead Indian both in the house with them, and the Indians about the house besieging them. At length they were relieved by a party sent for that purpose.

This whole affair, to shutting the door, was not, perhaps, more than three minutes in acting.

I am,

&c.

Westmoreland, April 26, 1779.

Narrative of the Adventures of CAPT. ISAAC STEWART; taken from his own mouth, in March, 1782.

I

WAS taken prisoner about 50 miles to the westward

of Fort Pitt, about 18 years ago, by the Indians, and was carried by them to the Wabash, with many more white men, who were executed with circumstances of horrid barbarity; it was my good fortune to call forth the sympathy of Rose, called the good woman of the town, who was permitted to redeem from the flames, by giving, as my ransom, a house.

After remaining 2 years in bondage amongst the Indians, a Spaniard came to the nation, having been sent from Mexico on discoveries. He made application to the chiefs, for redeeming me and another white man in the like situation, a native of Wales, named John Davey; which they complied with, and we took our departure in company with the Spaniard, and travelled to the westward, crossing the Mississippi near la Riviere Rough, or Red River, up which we travelled 700 miles, when we came to a nation of Indians remarkably white, and whose hair was of a reddish colour, at least mostly so; they lived on the bank of a small river that empties itself into the Red River, which is called the River Post. In the morning of the day after our arrival amongst these Indians, the Welchman informed me, that he was determined to remain with them, giving as a reason that he understood their language, it being very little different from the Welch. My curiosity was excited very much by this information, and I went with my companion to the chief men of the town, who informed him (in a language I had no knowledge of, and which had no affinity to that of any other Indian tongue I ever heard) that their fore-fathers of this nation came from a foreign country, and landed on the east side of the Mississippi, describing particularly the country now called West Florida, and that on the Spaniards taking possession of Mexico, they fled to their then abode; and as a proof of the truth of what he advanced, he brought forth rolls of parchment, which were carefully tied up in otter skins, on which were large characters, written with blue ink; the characters I did not understand, and the Welchman being unacquainted with letters, even of his own language, I was not able to know the meaning of

the writing. They are a bold, hardy, intrepid people, very warlike, and the women beautiful, when compared with other Indians.

We left this nation, after being kindly treated and requested to remain among them, being only two in number, the Spaniard and myself, and we continued our course up the waters of the Red River, till we came to a nation of Indians, called Windots, that had never seen a white man before, and who were unacquainted with the use of fire arms. On our way, we came to a transparent stream, which, to our great surprize, we found to descend into the earth, and, at the foot of a ridge of mountains, disappeared; it was remarkably clear, and, near to it, we found the bones of two animals, of such a size that a man might walk under the ribs, and the teeth were very heavy.

The nation of Indians who had never seen a white man, lived near the source of the Red River, and there the Spaniard discovered, to his great joy, gold dust in the brooks and rivulets; and being informed by the Indians, that a nation lived farther west, who were very rich, and whose arrows were pointed with gold, we set out in the hope of reaching their country, and travelled about five hundred miles, till we came to a ridge of mountains, which we crossed, and from which the streams run due west, and at the foot of the mountains, the Spaniard gave proofs of joy and great satisfaction, having found gold in great abundance. I was not acquainted with the nature of the ore, but I lifted up what he called gold dust from the bottom of the little rivulets issuing from the cavities of the rocks, and it had a yellow cast, and was remarkably heavy: but so much was the Spaniard satisfied, he relinquished his

« ПредишнаНапред »