Old John was temporarily confined in the lower room of the gate house at the east end of Cayuga bridge. The winter was of unusual severity, and there being no jail in Aurora, the prisoner was kept at Canandaigua during the cold months. In the spring, or early in the summer, he was brought back to Cayuga for trial. The company, only seven in number, traveled on horseback, and somewhat secretly, for it was feared that the Indians would undertake to rescue their companion. The red men claimed that they were not under the jurisdiction of the whites, but the latter insisted upon taking cognizance of all cases, at least, in which their brethren were concerned, while, in fact, they extended their jurisdiction over the Indians themselves.

The escort met several bands of Indians, who, however, appeared to take but little interest in the fate of the Delaware.

In the tavern at Geneva where the company remained over night, some one inquired of Old John why he had murdered Crane.

"Me want to shoot," replied the Indian. "But they're going to hang you, John!" "Me no care," responded the old Indian, not sensible in his heart of having wronged any one, (for the savage claims the right of revenge,) and in no wise comprehending his own situation.

The trial was held before D. D. Tompkins, judge of the Circuit Court, in the old Academy of Aurora, being the first capital case in the county. I have not seen the records of the court, but several persons who were present have informed me that the trial lasted but a single day.

The Delaware was surly, and took but little notice of what was going on. When asked by the court if he had killed Crane, he raised his honest, familiar face and replied, as if answering the most trivial question,

"Yes, me kill him; me want to shoot!" The old Indian acknowledged that he had unconsciously taken the life of his friend, but, like an Indian, was not disturbed by any sense of guilt. It was a curious spectacle to see him there, before lawyers and jurors, silent, moody, and childishly ignorant of the strange proceedings around him. What a mockery to him the latter, comprehending neither their nature nor their importance! When, under such circumstances, was justice ever

granted to an Indian? Alas, after we have exterminated them by our violence and cruelty we ask, "Who were they?" When their council fires are put out, and they are gone, all gone, to the land of the hereafter, we inquire after their virtues and come to admire the noble race. In our day old Indian John would have suffered imprisonment for a term of years or for the remainder of his life, but the jury convicted him of murder, and he was sentenced to be executed on the 17th of August following. One of the Indians who had assisted in capturing John was at Aurora during the trial. When they led the prisoner into the court room, he supposed that they were going to kill him. The Delaware had sworn to be revenged upon his enemy, and as the latter saw the old man brought out again in the evening, he rushed upon him with a knife, and could with difficulty be restrained from plunging it into his breast.

During the remainder of his confinement Indian John was sullen and gloomy. Mr. Woodruff, the village pastor, and Elder Whipple, both godly men, often visited him to converse about religion, but appear to have had no influence upon the untutored mind of the savage. How vain the hope that he would receive the God of the pale faces, after they had driven his brethren from the earth and condemned himself to die like a dog! Had the Great White Father, indeed, forgotten his Indian children? Old John had no knowledge of God and the redemption, but to the good men who came to talk to him of Jesus, he one day conveyed in a simple and effective manner his idea of life and the future world. The old Indian was, in fact, a man of strong mind and great sagacity. Pointing with a stick to the first of three cracks in the floor, he remarked, "So far me knows as good as you," meaning that by the light of Nature the white man and the Indian wandered in equal ignorance. "So far you knows better than me," he continued, drawing his stick to the second line, and indicating thereby that civilization renders the white man superior to the Indian. "But here me knows again as good as you," he added, after a short pause, giving his companions to understand that they were all alike unacquainted with the secrets of the grave and the mysteries of the future world.

Indian John expressed a wish to be shot, in order that he might die like a warrior,

with his rifle in his hands, but that being denied him, he submitted to his fate with stoical indifference. A gallows was erected in the shade of a venerable oak, near Paine's Creek, a little south of Aurora. The event drew together, for that time, an immense concourse of people. They came in boats and wagons, and by following Indian trails, afoot or on horseback, from settlements many miles distant, bringing their own provisions and prepared to camp by the way. Even many women and children were present to witness the execution. In accordance with the custom of those times, Mr. Woodruff preached a sermon before the assembled multitude, a portion of which was directed to the prisoner. The good pastor said:

"When you were arraigned at the bar of justice you confessed your murderous purpose, and asserted your impenitence; nay, that your designs extended still further; to take the life of every white brother, until your own should be sacrificed. This is the hour of your execution. In a few moments you must die and be arraigned at the bar of God, and there be tried for this and all your other offenses. Although you have not lived under the light of the Gospel, yet such have been the advantages of the light of Nature, and such your intercourse with Christian people, that you never can be justified nor expect to escape eternal condemnation. Jesus Christ came into the world to save just such miserable, ignorant, dying sinners as thou art. Now look up to him; he will bring you unto that great and good Spirit where all the good are gone. It is not now too late, but a

few minutes' delay will put it forever beyond a possibility to obtain pardon."

The old Indian listened with stolid indifference. As the sheriff Richmond fastened the rope around the neck of the culprit, he observed in his belt a pipe and a piece of tobacco, put there, the latter declared, to smoke the pipe of peace with his friend Crane in the world of spirits. When the ox cart upon which old John stood was drawn away, his feet were observed to cling to it as long as possible. Being a large and powerful man, he struggled violently for a few moments, and then all was over. It is said that not less than thirty physicians were present to experiment upon the body of the unfortunate His skeleton is still in the possession of Dr. Thompson. A few of the natives appear to have been present at the execution. A great panic was caused by the report that the Indians had entered into a plot to massacre the wives and children of the settlers during the absence of the men. No attempt of the kind, however, was made. The execution appeared to have a salutary influence upon the remaining savages, and to this day the mothers of Cayuga often relate to their wondering little ones the story of old Indian John.

man.

When Central and Western New York began to attract a larger immigration the great Genesee Turnpike was opened, fol

canoes.

opposite sides of the river, they stretched out their long necks and gobbled down such of the warriors as ventured to pass in their When this destruction of life had continued a long time, and all the efforts to exterminate the monsters had failed, the Cayugas and Onondagas held a great council to prevent, if possible, the total extinction of their tribes. It was resolved to bring all their warriors into the field. The battle was terrible, but the monsters were at last slain. When, however, their bodies decomposed, the atoms flew away in the shape of mosquitoes, and they have infested the region ever since.

A

EXTINCT MONSTERS.

MONG the vast concourse of animals that have passed away, after having discharged their appointed functions, there are, perhaps, none more remarkable than what are called the pachydermatous, or thick-skinned animals. So far as our present geological discoveries enable us to judge, we infer that their remains are to be found in almost all parts of the world; and although the species differ, still some type of remarkable form and structure may always be discovered. In England the remains of the great fossil elephant are very common, portions of some hundreds having been found. In France the Paleotherium and other animals of their kind are frequently met with. In the Rhine valley the remains of that most gigantic of all quadrupeds, the Dinotherium, were discovered by Professor Knapp. In the most northern parts of Russia, on the borders of the Frozen Ocean, the bones of the Mastodon, and even the body, have been found in a remarkable state of preservation. America seems to be rich in those treasures of a buried world. Commencing at the north pole, the bones of the Mastodon are found in great abundance, down even to the Gulf of Mexico. Nor is South America destitute of these organic treasures on the margins of the great rivers that intersect that country, the bones of that ungainly and strange animal, the Macrauchenia, are found, and not far from them the relics of the Mylodon and Megatherium. Australia presents us with the gigantic fossil Kangaroo, and New Zealand with her large wingless bird, the Dinornis. Neither is Asia less rich in those priceless treasures; the Sivatherium,

and other animals, representing the same huge forms of animal life in India. We are but imperfectly acquainted with the geology of Africa; but, from the few fossils of gigantic hippopotami which have been found, we may infer that that country has been equally favored with all others in the production of animal life. In the remainder of this article we shall recall to our imagination the existence of some of those remarkable creatures, and endeavor to familiarize our readers with the form and structure of a few of the inhabitants of the earth, who browsed upon its pastures long before the deluge.

It is not a little remarkable that the two most important cities in the world, Paris and London, stand upon the most interesting spots to geologists that have ever yet been discovered. Under each there was once a beautiful lake, on the shores of which lived animals of strange form and appearance. Let us cut through the mass of accumulated strata upon which Paris now stands, and go down to those times when other and strange creatures walked over the spot where the gay Parisians at present promenade.

The first thing that we encounter is the verdant soil, which is rich and fruitful; but under this casing is a bed of freshwater limestone, which abounds in freshwater shells. The city is built of this stone, which has been cut from the rock in subterranean quarries; these quarries have long been used as charnel houses, and contain the bones of tens of thousands of people piled up in rows, in many places corresponding with the streets above. Paris, the gay and beautiful city, is built with the dead inhabitants of the great lake, and stands upon whole generations of its own citizens; but deeper down than this limestone tomb is another bed or layer of marl and sandstone, which was deposited there when it was the bottom of the sea. This also is the grave of millions of marine animals; but in still older times there had been a lake of fresh water on the same spot, which had left a thick bed of gypseous marl, in which are buried the bones of hundreds of thousands of once living creatures; and before this time the sea had been here, for this lake rested upon a bed of shells which had been left there by the ocean, and the ocean itself had flowed over a bed of plastic clay, which owes its origin to some old lake or river which