As early as the year 1790, the block-house and stockade, above the mouth
of the Hockhocking river, was a frontier post for the hardy pioneer of
that portion of the state from the Hockhocking to the Sciota, and from the
Ohio river to the northern lakes. Then nature wore her undisturbed livery
of dark and thick forests, interspersed with green and flowery prairies.
Then the axe of the woodman had not been heard in the wilderness, nor the
plough of the husbandmen marred the beauty of the green prairies. Among
the rich and luxuriant valleys, that of the Hockhocking was pre-eminent
for nature's richest gifts--and the portico of it whereon Lancaster now
stands, was marked as the most luxuriant and picturesque, and became the
seat of an Indian village, at a period so early, that the "memory of man
runneth not parallel thereto." On the green sward of the prairie was held
many a rude gambol of the Indians; and here, too, was many an assemblage
of the warriors of one of the most powerful tribes, taking counsel for a
"war-path," upon some weak or defenceless post.
[Illustration: THE BLOCK-HOUSE.]
Upon one of these stirring occasions, intelligence reached the little
garrison above the mouth of the Hockhocking, that the Indians were
gathering in force somewhere up the valley, for the purpose of striking a
terrible and fatal blow on one of the few and scattered defences of the
whites. A council was held by the garrison, and scouts were sent up the
Hockhocking, in order to ascertain the strength of the foe, and the
probable point of attack. In the month of October, and on one of the
balmiest days of our Indian summer, two men could have been seen emerging
out of the thick plumb and hazel bushes skirting the prairie, and
stealthily climbing the eastern declivity of that most remarkable
promontory, now known as Mount Pleasant, whose western summit gives a
commanding view to the eye of what is doing on the prairie. This eminence
was gained by our two adventurers and hardy scouts, and from this point
they carefully observed the movements taking place on the prairie. Every
day brought an accession of warriors to those already assembled, and every
day the scouts witnessed from their eyrie, the horse-racing, leaping,
running and throwing the deadly tomahawk by the warriors. The old sachems
looking on with indifference--the squaws, for the most part, engaged in
their usual drudgeries, and the papooses manifesting all the noisy and
wayward joy of childhood. The arrival of any new party of savages was
hailed by the terrible war-whoop, which striking the mural face of Mount
Pleasant, was driven back into the various indentations of the surrounding
hills, producing reverberation on reverberation, and echo on echo, till it
seemed as if ten thousand fiends were gathered in their orgies. Such yells
might well strike terror into the bosoms of those unaccustomed to them. To
our scouts these were but martial music strains which waked their
watchfulness, and strung their iron frames. From their early youth had
they been always on the frontier, and therefore well practised in all the
subtlety, craft, and cunning, as well as knowing the ferocity and
bloodthirsty perseverance of the savage. They were therefore not likely to
be circumvented by the cunning of their foes; and without a desperate
struggle, would not fall victims to the scalping-knife.
On several occasions, small parties of warriors left the prairies and
ascended the Mount; at which times the scouts would hide in the fissures
of the rocks, or lying by the side of some long prostrate tree, cover
themselves with the sear and yellow leaf, and again leave their hiding
places when their uninvited visitors had disappeared.
[Illustration: A SHAWANESE WARRIOR.]
For food they depended on jerked venison, and cold corn bread, with which
their knapsacks had been well stored. Fire they dared not kindle, and the
report of one of their rifles would bring upon them the entire force of
the Indians. For drink they depended on some rain water, which still stood
in excavations of the rocks, but in a few days this store was exhausted,
and M'Clelland and White must abandon their enterprise or find a new
supply. To accomplish this most hazardous affair, M'Clelland being the
elder, resolved to make the attempt--with his trusty rifle in his grasp,
and two canteens strung across his shoulders, he cautiously descended to
the prairie, and skirting the hills on the north as much as possible
within the hazel thickets, he struck a course for the Hockhocking river.
He reached its margin, and turning an abrupt point of a hill, he found a
beautiful fountain of limpid water, now known as the Cold Spring, within a
few feet of the river. He filled his canteens and returned in safety to
his watchful companion. It was now determined to have a fresh supply of
water every day, and this duty was to be performed alternately.
On one of these occasions, after White had filled his canteens, he sat a
few moments, watching the limpid element, as it came gurgling out of the
bosom of the earth--the light sound of footsteps caught his practised ear,
and upon turning round, he saw two squaws within a few feet of him; these
upon turning the jet of the hill had thus suddenly came upon him. The
elder squaw gave one of those far-reaching whoops peculiar to the Indians.
White at once comprehended his perilous situation--for if the alarm should
reach the camp, he and his companion must inevitably perish.
Self-preservation impelled him to inflict a noiseless death upon the
squaws, and in such a manner as to leave no trace behind. Ever rapid in
thought, and prompt in action, he sprang upon his victims with a rapidity
and power of a panther, and grasping the throat of each, with one bound he
sprang into the river, and rapidly thrust the head of the elder woman
under the water, and making stronger efforts to submerge the younger, who,
however, powerfully resisted. During the short struggle, the younger
female addressed him in his own language, though almost in inarticulate
sounds. Releasing his hold, she informed him, that, ten years before, she
had been made a prisoner, on Grave Creek flats, and that the Indians, in
her presence, butchered her mother and two sisters; and that an only
brother had been captured with her, who succeeded on the second night in
making his escape; but what had become of him she knew not.
During the narrative, White, unobserved by the girl, had let go his grasp
on the elder squaw, whose body soon floated where it would not, probably
soon be found. He now directed the girl hastily to follow him, and with
his usual energy and speed, pushed for the Mount. They had scarcely gone
two hundred yards from the spring, before the alarm cry was heard some
quarter of a mile down the stream. It was supposed that some warriors
returning from a hunt, struck the Hockhocking just as the body of the
drowned squaw floated past. White and the girl succeeded in reaching the
Mount, where M'Clelland had been no indifferent spectator to the sudden
commotion among the Indians, as the prairie warriors were seen to strike
off in every direction, and before White and the girl had arrived, a party
of some twenty warriors had already gained the eastern acclivity of the
Mount, and were cautiously ascending, carefully keeping under cover. Soon
the two scouts saw the swarthy faces of the foe, as they glided from tree
to tree, and rock to rock, until the whole base of the Mount was
surrounded, and all hopes of escape were cut off.
[Illustration: A SHAWANESE CHIEF.]
In this peril nothing was left, other than to sell their lives as dearly
as possible; this they resolved to do, and advised the girl to escape to
the Indians, and tell them she had been a captive to the scouts.
She said, "No! Death, and that in presence of my people, is to me a
thousand times sweeter than captivity--furnish me with a rifle, and I will
show you that I can fight as well as die. This spot I leave not! here my
bones shall lie bleaching with yours! and should either of you escape, you
will carry the tidings of my death to my remaining relatives."
Remonstrance proved fruitless; the two scouts matured their plans for a
vigorous defence--opposing craft to craft, expedient to expedient, and an
unerring fire of the deadly rifle. The attack now commenced in front,
where, from the narrow backbone of the Mount, the savages had to advance
in single file, but where they could avail themselves of the rock and
trees. In advancing the warrior must be momentarily exposed, and two bare
inches of his swarthy form was target enough for the unerring rifle of the
scouts. After bravely maintaining the fight in front, and keeping the
enemy in check, they discovered a new danger threatening them. The wary
foe now made every preparation to attack them in flank, which could be
most successfully and fatally done by reaching an insulated rock lying in
one of the ravines on the southern hill side. This rock once gained by the
Indians, they could bring the scouts under point blank shot of the rifle;
and without the possibility of escape.
Our brave scouts saw the hopelessness of their situation, which nothing
could avert but brave companions and an unerring shot--them they had not.
But the brave never despair. With this certain fate resting upon them,
they had continued as calm, and as calculating, and as unwearied as the
strongest desire of vengeance on a treacherous foe could produce. Soon
M'Clelland saw a tall and swarthy figure preparing to spring from a cover
so near the fatal rock, that a single bound must reach it, and all hope be
destroyed. He felt that all depended on one advantageous shot, although
but one inch of the warrior's body was exposed, and that at a distance of
one hundred yards--he resolved to risk all--coolly he raised his rifle to
his eyes, carefully shading the sight with his hand, he drew a bead so
sure, that he felt conscious it would do--he touched the hair trigger with
his finger--the hammer came down, but in place of striking fire, it
crushed his flint into a hundred fragments! Although he felt that the
savage must reach the fatal rock before he could adjust another flint, he
proceeded to the task with the utmost composure, casting many a furtive
glance towards the fearful point. Suddenly he saw the warrior stretching
every muscle for the leap--and with the agility of a deer he made the
spring--instead of reaching the rock he sprung ten feet in the air, and
giving one terrific yell he fell upon the earth, and his dark corpse
rolled fifty feet down the hill. He had evidently received a death shot
from some unknown hand. A hundred voices from below re-echoed the terrible
shout, and it was evident that they had lost a favorite warrior, as well
as been foiled for a time in their most important movement. A very few
moments proved that the advantage so mysteriously gained would be of short
duration; for already the scouts caught a momentary glimpse of a swarthy
warrior, cautiously advancing towards the cover so recently occupied by a
fellow companion. Now, too, the attack in front was resumed with increased
fury, so as to require the incessant fire of both scouts, to prevent the
Indians from gaining the eminence--and in a short time M'Clelland saw the
wary warrior turning a somerset, his corpse rolled down towards his
companion: again a mysterious agent had interposed in their behalf. This
second sacrifice cast dismay into the ranks of the assailants; and just as
the sun was disappearing behind the western hills, the foe withdrew a
short distance, for the purpose of devising new modes of attack. The
respite came most seasonably to the scouts, who had bravely kept their
position, and boldly maintained the unequal fight from the middle of the
day.
[Illustration: THE SCOUT.]
Now, for the first time, was the girl missing, and the scouts supposed
through terror she had escaped to her former captors, or that she had been
killed during the fight. They were not long left to doubt, for in a few
moments the girl was seen emerging from behind a rock and coming to them
with a rifle in her hand.
During the heat of the fight she saw a warrior fall, who had advanced some
fifty yards before the main body in front. She at once resolved to possess
herself of his rifle, and crouching in undergrowth she crept to the spot,
and succeeded in her enterprise, being all the time exposed to the cross
fire of the defenders and assailants--her practised eye had early noticed
the fatal rock, and hers was the mysterious hand by which the two warriors
had fallen--the last being the most wary, untiring, and bloodthirsty brave
of the Shawnese tribe. He it was, who ten years previous had scalped the
family of the girl, and been her captor.
In the west, dark clouds were now gathering, and in an hour the whole
heavens were shrouded in them; this darkness greatly embarrassed the
scouts in their contemplated night retreat, for they might readily lose
their way, or accidentally fall on the enemy--this being highly probable,
if not inevitable. An hour's consultation decided their plans, and it was
agreed that the girl, from her intimate knowledge of their localities,
should lead the advance a few steps. Another advantage might be gained by
this arrangement, for in case they should fall in with some out-post, the
girl's knowledge of the Indian tongue, would, perhaps, enable her to
deceive the sentinel: and so the sequel proved, for scarcely had they
descended one hundred feet, when a low "whist" from the girl, warned them
of present danger.
[Illustration: THE RETURNED CAPTIVE.]
The scouts sunk silently to the earth, where, by previous agreement, they
were to remain till another signal was given them by the girl,--whose
absence for more than a quarter of an hour now began to excite the most
serious apprehensions. At length, she again appeared, and told them that
she had succeeded in removing two sentinels who were directly in their
route to a point some hundred feet distant. The descent was noiselessly
resumed--the level gained, and the scouts followed their intrepid pioneer
for half a mile in the most profound silence, when the barking of a small
dog, within a few feet, apprised them of a new danger. The almost
simultaneous click of the scouts' rifles was heard by the girl, who
rapidly approached them, and stated that they were now in the midst of the
Indian wigwams, and their lives depended on the most profound silence, and
implicitly following her footsteps. A moment afterwards, the girl was
accosted by a squaw, from an opening in the wigwam. She replied in the
Indian language, and without stopping pressed forward.
In a short time she stopped and assured the scouts that the village was
cleared and that they were now in safety. She knew that every pass leading
out of the prairie was safely guarded by Indians, and at once resolved to
adopt the bold adventure of passing through the very centre of their
village as the least hazardous. The result proved the correctness of her
judgment.
They now kept a course for the Ohio, being guided by the Hockhocking
river--and after three days' march and suffering, the party arrived at the
block-house in safety.
Their escape from the Indians, prevented the contemplated attack; and the
rescued girl proved to be the sister of the intrepid Neil Washburn,
celebrated in Indian warfare as the renowned scout to Captain Kenton's
bloody Kentuckians.
[Illustration: THE YOUNG HERO CROSSING THE RIVER.]