THE INDIANS AND THEIR PRISONERS.
As you ascend the Miami from its mouth at the present day, you come
almost immediately upon what are termed the Bottoms, or Bottom Lands,
which are rich and fertile tracts of country, of miles in extent, and
sometimes miles in breadth, almost water level, with the stream in
question slowly winding its course through them, like a deep blue ribbon
carelessly unrolled upon a dark surface. They are now mostly under
culture, and almost entirely devoted to the production of maize, which,
in the autumn of the year, presents the goodly sight of a golden
harvest. At the time of which we write, there were no such pleasant
demonstrations of civilization, but a vast unbroken forest instead, some
vestiges of which still remain, in the shape of old decaying trees,
standing grim and naked,
"To summer's heat and winter's blast,"
like the ruins of ancient structures, to remind the beholder of former
days.
On these Bottoms, about ten miles above the mouth of the Miami,
Wild-cat and his party, with their prisoners, encamped on the evening
the attack was made upon the renegade, as shown in the preceding chapter.
Possessing caution in a great degree, and fearful of the escape of his
prisoners, Wild-cat spared no precautions which he thought might enhance
the security of Younker and Reynolds. Accordingly, when arrived at the
spot where he intended to remain for the night, the chief ordered stakes
to be driven deep into the earth, some distance apart, to which the feet
of the two in question, after being thrown flat upon their backs, in
opposite directions, were tightly bound, with their hands still corded
to the crossbars as before. A rope was next fastened around the neck
of each, and secured to a neighboring sapling, in which uncomfortable
manner they were left to pass the night; while their captors, starting
a fire, threw themselves upon the earth around it, and soon to all
appearance were sound asleep.
To the tortures of her older companions in captivity, little Rosetta
was not subjected; for Oshasqua--the fierce warrior to whom Girty had
consigned her, in the expectation, probably, that she would long ere
this have been knocked on the head and scalped--had, by one of those
strange mysterious phenomena of nature, (so difficult of comprehension,
and which have been known to link the rough and bloody with the gentle
and innocent,) already begun to feel towards her a sort of affection,
and to treat her with great kindness whenever he could do so unobserved
by the others. The apparel of which he had at first divested her, to
ornament his own person, had been restored, piece by piece; and this,
together with the change in his manner, had at length been observed by
the child, with feelings of gratitude. Poor little thing! to whom could
she look for protection now? Her father and mother were dead--had been
murdered before her own eyes--her brother was away, and she herself a
captive to an almost merciless foe; could she feel other than grateful
for an act of kindness, from one at whose hands she looked for nothing
but abuse and death? Nay, more: So strange and complex is the human
heart--so singular in its developments--that we see nothing to wonder
at, in her feeling for the savage, under the circumstances--loathsome
and offensive as he might have been to her under others--a sort of
affection--or rather, a yearning toward him as a protector. Such she did
feel; and thus between two human beings, as much antagonistical perhaps,
in every particular, as Nature ever presented, was already established
a kind of magnetic sympathy--or, in other words, a gradual blending
together of opposites. The result of all this, as may be imagined, was
highly beneficial to Rosetta, who, in consequence, fared as well as
circumstances would permit. At night she slept unbound beside Oshasqua,
who secured her from escape by passing his brawny arm under her head,
which also in a measure served her for a pillow. So slept she on the
night in question.
With Younker and Reynolds there was little that could be called
sleep--the minds of both being too actively employed with the events
which had transpired, and with thoughts of those so dear to them, who
had been left behind, for what fate God only knew. Besides, there was
little wherewithal to court the drowsy god, in the manner of their
repose--each limb being strained and corded in a position the most
painful--and if they slept at all, it was that feverish and fitful
slumber, which, though it serve in part the design of nature, brings
with it nothing refreshing to the individual himself. To both,
therefore, the night proved one of torture to body and mind; and bad as
was their condition after the encampment, it was destined to be worse
ere the gray dawn of morning, by the arrival of Girty and the only two
Indians who had escaped the deadly rifles of the Kentuckians.
"Up, warriors!" cried the renegade, with a blasphemous oath, as he came
upon the detachment. "Up, warriors! and sharpen your wits to invent the
most damnable tortures that the mind of man can conceive!" and at the
sound of his voice, which was loud and hoarse, each Indian sprung to his
feet, with an anxious and troubled face.
"And you, ye miserable white dogs!" continued Girty, turning to Younker
and Reynolds, on whom he bestowed numerous kicks, as if by way of
enforcing the truth his assertion; "were you suffering all the torments
of hell, you might consider yourselves in perfect bliss, compared to
what you shall yet undergo ere death snatches you from me!"
"What new troubles ha' ye got, Simon Girty?" asked Younker, composedly.
"But you needn't answer; I can see what's writ on your face; thar's bin
a rescue--you've lost your prisoners--for which the Lord be praised! I
can die content now, with all your tortures."
"Can you, by ----!" cried the renegade, in a paroxysm of rage; "we shall
see!"
As he concluded, he bestowed upon Younker a kick in the face, so violent
that a stream of blood followed it. The old man uttered a slight groan,
but made no other answer; and Girty turned away to communicate to the
others the intelligence of what had transpired since their parting; for
although they believed it to be of the utmost consequence, and tragical
in all its bearings, yet so far there had not been a question asked nor
an event related concerning it on either side--such being the force of
habit in all matters of grave importance, and the deference to his
superiors shown by the Indian on all similar occasions.
As soon as Girty had made known the sad disaster that had befallen his
party, there was one universal yell of rage, accompanied by violent
demonstrations of grief and anger--such as beating their bodies,
stamping fiercely on the ground, and brandishing their tomahawks over
their heads with terrific gestures. They then proceeded to dance around
Younker and Reynolds, uttering horrid yells, accompanied with kicks and
blows; after which, a consultation was held between Girty and Wild-cat,
wherein it was agreed to take them to Piqua, a Shawanoe settlement on
the Miami, and there have them put to the tortures. Accordingly, without
further delay, they unbound their prisoners, with the exception of their
hands, and forced them to set forward at a fast pace--treating them,
meanwhile, in the most brutal manner. Oshasqua, however, took good care
there should be no violence done to Rosetta; for he kept her closely by
his side; and occasionally, when he saw her little limbs growing weary,
raised and bore her forward, for a considerable distance, in his arms.
It was a strange, but by no means unpleasing sight, to behold that dark,
bloodstained warrior--whose very nature was cruel and ferocious, and who
probably had never before loved or sought to protect aught bearing the
human form--now exhibiting such tender regard for a weak, trembling
prisoner, placed in his hands for a speedy sacrifice. It was withal an
affecting sight, to Younker and Reynolds, who looked upon it with
moistened eyes, and felt it in the force of a revelation from Heaven,
that He, who sees the sparrow fall, was even now moving through the
wilderness, and teaching one lesson of mercy at least to the most
obdurate heart of the savage race.
To the renegade, however, this conduct of Oshasqua was far from being
agreeable; for so much did he delight in cruelty, and so bitterly did he
hate all his race--particularly now, after having been foiled by them
so lately--that he would a thousand times rather have heard the dying
groans of the child, and seen her in the last agonies of death, than in
the warrior's arms. At length he advanced to the side of the Indian, and
said in the Shawanoe dialect, with a sneer:
"Is Oshasqua a squaw, that he should turn nurse?"
Probably from the whole vocabulary of the Indian tongue, a phrase more
expressive of contempt, and one that would have been more severely felt
by the savage warrior, who abhors any thing of a womanly nature, could
not have been selected; and this Girty, who understood well to whom he
was speaking, knew, and was prepared to see the hellish design of his
heart meet with a ready second from Oshasqua. For a moment after he
spoke, the latter looked upon the renegade with flashing eyes; and then
seizing Rosetta roughly, he raised her aloft, as if with the intention
of dashing her brains out at his feet. She doubtless understood from
his fierce movement the murderous intent in his breast, and uttered a
heart-rending cry of anguish. In an instant the grim features of the
Indian softened; and lowering her again to her former position in his
arms, he turned coldly to Girty, and smiting his breast with his hand,
said, with dignity:
"Oshasqua a warrior above suspicion. He can save and defend with his
life whom he loves!"
Girty bit his lips, and uttering a deep malediction in English, turned
away to consult with Wild-cat on the matter; but finding the chief would
not join him in interfering with the rights of the other, he growled out
another dreadful oath, and let the subject drop.
Late at night the party encamped within something like a mile of Piqua;
and by daylight a warrior was despatched to convey intelligence of their
approach, their prisoners, and the sad disaster they had experienced on
their journey. In the course of an hour the messenger returned, bringing
with him a vast number of savages of both sexes and all ages, who
immediately set up the most horrid yells, danced around Younker and
Algernon like madmen, not unfrequently beating and kicking them
unmercifully. They then departed for the town, taking the prisoners with
them, where their fate was to be decided by the council.[12] But ere
sentence should be pronounced, it was the unanimous decision of the
savages, that they should have some amusement, by forcing the prisoners
to run the gauntlet. This, to the women and children, as well as the
warriors themselves, was a most delightful sport, and they at once made
the welkin ring with yells of joy.
"It's a hard task we've got to undergo now, Algernon," said Younker, in
a low voice; "and God send it may be my last; for I'd much rayther die
this way, nor at the stake. I don't at all calculate on escaping--but
something tells me you will--and ef you do--"
Here the old man was interrupted by Girty, who forced himself between
the two and separated them. Younker being the first selected to run the
gauntlet, was immediately unbound, and stripped to the skin,[13]
preparatory to the race. The assemblage now formed themselves into two
lines, facing each other, only a few feet apart, and extending the
distance of a hundred yards, terminating near the council-house, which
stood in the center of the village. Through these lines, the old man was
informed by Girty, he must run; while the savages on either side, armed
with clubs, were at liberty to inflict as many blows upon him as they
could in passing; and therefore it would stand him in hand to reach the
other extremity as soon as possible.
"I'm an old man, Simon Girty," said Younker, in reply, "and can't run as
I once could--so you needn't reckon on my gitting through alive."
"But, by ----! you must get through alive, or else not at all; for we
can't spare you quite so soon, as we want you to try the pleasures of
the stake," answered the renegade, with a laugh.
"God's will be done--not yourn nor mine!" rejoined Younker, solemnly.
"But tell me, Simon Girty, as the only favor I'll ever ask o' ye--war my
wife and Ella rescued?"
"Why," said Girty, "if it will do you any good to know it, I will tell
you they were; but I will add, for your particular benefit, that they
will again be in my power; for I will excite every tribe of the Six
Nations to the war path; and then, woe to the pioneers of Kentucky!--for
desolation, rapine and blood shall mark our trail, until the race become
extinct. I have sworn, and will fulfill it. But come--all is ready."
"For the first o' your information, I thank you," returned Younker; "for
the last on't, I'll only say, thar's a power above ye. I'm ready--lead
on!"
Girty now conducted the old man to the lines; and having cautioned the
savages, in a loud voice, to beware of taking his life, gave the signal
for him to start. Instantly Younker darted forward, and with such speed,
that the nearest Indians neglected to strike until he had passed them,
by which means he gained some six or eight paces without receiving a
blow; but now they fell hard and fast upon him, accompanied with screams
and yells of the most diabolical nature; and ere he had gone thirty
yards, he began to stagger, when a heavy stroke on the head laid him
senseless on the earth. In a moment the renegade, who had kept him
company outside, burst through the lines, just in time to ward off the
blow of a powerful warrior, aimed at the skull of Younker, which,
without doubt, would have been fatal.
"Fool!" cried Girty, fiercely, to the Indian. "Did I not tell you his
life must be spared for the stake?"
The savage drew himself up with dignity, and walked away without reply;
while the renegade, examining the bruises of the fallen man for a moment
or two, ordered him to be taken to the council-house, and, if possible,
restored to consciousness. He then returned to Algernon, who had been
left standing a sad spectator of the whole proceedings, and said, in a
gruff voice:
"Now, by ----! young man, it's your turn; and let me tell you, it will
stand you in hand to do your best. Come, let us see what sort of a
figure you will cut."
As he concluded, he severed the thongs around the hands of our hero, and
unceremoniously began to strip him, in which he was aided by a couple of
old squaws.
The features of Algernon were pale, but composed; and he allowed himself
to be handled as one who felt an escape from his doom to be impossible,
and who had nerved himself to undergo it with as much stoicism as he
could command. As his vestments were rent from his body, the wound
in his side was discovered to be nearly healed; and would have been
entirely so, probably, but for the irritation occasioned it of late by
his long marches, exposure and fatigue, which had served to render it at
present not a little painful. As his eye for a moment rested upon it,
his mind instantly reverted to its cause--recalled, with the rapidity
of thought, which is the swiftest comparison we can make, the many and
important events that had since transpired up to the present time,
wherein the gentle Ella Barnwell held no second place--and he sighed,
half aloud:
"I would to Heaven it had been mortal!--how much misery had then been
spared me?"
As he said this, one of the squaws, who had been observing it intently,
struck him thereon a violent blow with her fist, which started it to
bleeding afresh, and, in spite of himself, caused Algernon to utter a
sharp cry of pain, at which all laughed heartily. Thinking doubtless
this species of amusement as interesting as any, the old hag was on the
point of repeating the blow, when Girty arrested it, by saying something
to her in the Indian tongue, and all three turned aside, as if to
consult together, leaving our hero standing alone, unbound.
A wild thought now suddenly thrilled him. He was free, perchance he
might escape; at least he could but die in the attempt; and that, at
all events, was preferable to a lingering death of torture! He looked
hurriedly around. Only the renegade and the squaws were close at hand,
and they engaged in conversation. The main body of the Indians were at a
distance, awaiting him to run the gauntlet. He needed no second thought
to prompt him to the trial; and wheeling about, he placed his hand upon
the wound, and bounded away with the fleetness of the deer. In a moment
the yells of an hundred savages in pursuit, sounded in his ear, and
urged him onward to the utmost of his strength. He was no mean runner at
any time; now he was flying to save his life, and every nerve did its
duty. Before him was a slope, that stretched away to the river Miami;
and down this he fled with a velocity that astonished himself; while
yell after yell of the demons behind, now in full chase, were to him
only so many death cries, to stimulate him to renewed exertions. At last
he gained the river and rushed into the water. It was not deep, and he
struggled forward with all his might. On the opposite side was a steep
hill and thicket. Could he but gain that, hope whispered he might elude
his pursuers and escape. Again he redoubled his exertions; and, joy--joy
to his heart--he reached it, just as the foremost of his adversaries,
a powerful and fleet young warrior, dashed into the stream from the
opposite bank. He now for the first time began to feel weak and
fatigued; but his life was yet in danger, and he still pressed onward.
Alas! alas! just on the point of escape, his strength was failing him
fast, the blood was trickling too from his wound, and a sharp, severe
pain afflicted him in his side. Oh God! he thought--what would he not
give for the strength and soundness of body he once possessed! The
thicket he had entered was dense and dark, so that it was impossible to
move through it with much velocity, or see ahead any distance; and as
the thought just recorded rushed through his brain, he came suddenly
upon a high, steep rock. By this time his nearest pursuer was also
entering the thicket; and in a minute or two more he felt capture would
be certain, unless he could instantly secrete himself till his strength
should be again renewed. Fortune for once now seemed to stand his
friend; for stooping down at the base of the rock, he discovered it
to be shelving and projecting somewhat over the declivity; so that by
dropping upon the ground and crawling up under it, he would, owing to
the density and darkness of the thicket, as before mentioned, be wholly
concealed from any one standing upright. To do this was the work of a
moment; and the next he heard his pursuing foe rush panting by, with
much the same sense of relief that one experiences on awakening from a
horrible dream, where death seemed inevitable, and finding oneself lying
safely and easily in a comfortable bed.
We say Algernon experienced much the same sense of relief as the
awakened dreamer; but unlike the latter, his was only momentary; for
yell upon yell still sounded in his ear; and plunge after plunge into
the stream, followed quickly by a rustling of the bushes around, the
trampling of many feet close by, and the war-whoops of his enemies,
warned him, that, if he had escaped one, there were hundreds yet to
be eluded before he could consider himself as safe. Wildly his heart
palpitated, as now one stirred the bushes within reach of his hand, and,
slightly pausing, as if to examine the spot of his concealment, uttered
a horrid yell, as of discovery, and then, just as he fancied all was
lost, to his great relief darted suddenly away.
Thus one after another passed on; and their fierce yells gradually
sounding more and more distant, renewed his hope, that he might yet
escape their vigilant eyes, and again be free to roam the earth at will.
O, potent, joyful thought!--how it made his very heart leap, and the
blood course swiftly through his heated veins!--and then, when some
sound was heard more near, how his heart sickened at the fear he might
again be captured, and forced to a lingering, agonizing death!--how he
shuddered as he thought, until his flesh felt chill and clammy, and cold
drops of perspiration, wrung forth by mental agony, stood upon his pale
features! Even death, before his escape, possessed not half the terrors
for him it would have now; for then he had nerved himself to meet it,
and prepared himself for the worst; but now he had again had a taste of
freedom, and would feel the reverse in a thousand accumulated horrors.
Thus for a few minutes he lay, in painful thought, when he became aware,
by the different sounds, that many of the savages were returning.
Presently some two or three paused by the rock, and beat back the bushes
around it. Then, dropping upon his knees, one of the Indians actually
put his head to the ground, and peered up into the cavity. It was a
horrible moment of suspense to Algernon, as he beheld the hideous visage
of the savage so near, and evidently gazing upon him; and thinking
himself discovered, he was on the point of coming forth, when a certain
vagueness in the look of the Indian, led him to hope he was not yet
perceived; and he lay motionless, with his breath suspended. But, alas!
his hope was soon changed to despair; for after gazing a moment longer,
the Indian suddenly started, his features expressed satisfaction, he
uttered a significant grunt, and, springing to his feet, gave a loud,
long, peculiar whoop. The next moment our hero was roughly seized, and,
ere he could exert himself at all, dragged forth by the heels, by which
means his limbs and body became not a little bruised and lacerated.
The savages now came running towards their prisoner from all quarters,
in high glee at his recapture--being attracted hither, probably, by the
signal whoop of success made by the one who first discovered him. Among
the rest came Girty; who, as he approached Algernon, burst into a loud
laugh, saying, in a jocular manner:
"Well, my fine bird, so you are caught again, eh? I was most infernally
afraid you had got away in earnest; I was, by ----! But we'll soon fix
you now, so that you won't run away again in a hurry."
Then turning to the savages around him, the renegade continued his
remarks in the Indian tongue, occasionally laughing boisterously, in
which they not unfrequently joined. In this manner, the whole party
returned in triumph to the village--being met on their way thither by
the women and children, who set up yells of delight, sung and danced
around their prisoner, whom they beat with their fists and with sticks,
until he became sore from head to heel.
The gauntlet was soon again made ready, and Algernon started upon the
race; but fatigued in body and mind, from the late events--weak and
faint from the bleeding of his wound and bruises--he scarcely reached
twenty paces down the lines, ere he sunk overpowered to the earth; from
which he was immediately raised, and borne forward to the council-house,
where, according to the Indian custom, the chiefs and warriors were to
decide upon his fate.
[Footnote 12: Lest there should seem to the reader an inconsistency
in one tribe yielding the fate of their prisoners to the decision of
another, we would remark here, that at the period of which we write, the
Six Nations were allied and fought for one common interest against the
Americans, on the British side, and therefore not unfrequently shared
each others dangers and partook of each others spoils.]
[Footnote 13: A practice sometimes, but not always, followed.]