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ELM ISLAND STORIES.
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_LION BEN OF ELM ISLAND._
_CHARLIE BELL, THE WAIF OF ELM ISLAND._
_THE ARK OF ELM ISLAND._
_THE BOY-FARMERS OF ELM ISLAND._
_THE YOUNG SHIP-BUILDERS OF ELM ISLAND._
_THE HARD-SCRABBLE OF ELM ISLAND._
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_THE YOUNG DELIVERERS OF PLEASANT COVE._
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_THE SPARK OF GENIUS._
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_THE WHISPERING PINE._
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_A STOUT HEART._
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* * * * *
[Illustration: THE BEAR FIGHT.--Page 238.]
* * * * *
THE
FOREST GLEN SERIES
BY
REV. ELIJAH KELLOGG.
FOREST GLEN.
_LEE & SHEPARD, BOSTON._
* * * * *
THE FOREST GLEN SERIES.
FOREST GLEN;
OR,
THE MOHAWK'S FRIENDSHIP.
BY
ELIJAH KELLOGG,
AUTHOR OF "ELM ISLAND STORIES," "PLEASANT COVE STORIES,"
"THE WHISPERING PINE SERIES," ETC.
Illustrated.
BOSTON:
LEE AND SHEPARD, PUBLISHERS.
NEW YORK
CHARLES T. DILLINGHAM
COPYRIGHT,
1877,
BY ELIJAH KELLOGG.
PREFACE.
The story here presented not only grasps those terrible vicissitudes in
which the frontier life of our forefathers was so prolific, but at the
same time conveys many useful lessons and incentives to manly effort,
and much curious information in relation to a period in the history of
Pennsylvania, when her soil was occupied by a population comprising
many different races and religious sects, having little in common, and
held together by the fearful pressure of an Indian war.
Here we behold the strange spectacle of the Quaker tilling his land,
and pursuing his ordinary duties, while his more belligerent neighbor
sleeps with the rifle within reach of his hand, sits in the house
of God with the weapon between his knees, goes armed in the funeral
procession, which is often attacked, the mourners killed, scalped, and
flung into the grave of the corpse they were about to inter.
The noble response of the Delawares to the appeal of the Quakers
evinces that the red man is no less sensitive to kindness, than
implacable in revenge; capable of appreciating and manifesting the most
tender and generous sentiments.
Our breasts throb with sympathetic emotions, as, after having noted
with interest the progress of the strife, we see this determined band
emerge in triumph, with thinned ranks but courage undiminished, from
the terrible ordeal.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.
THE BREWING OF THE STORM 11
CHAPTER II.
THUNDER FROM AFAR 22
CHAPTER III.
FOREWARNED 30
CHAPTER IV.
PREPARING FOR THE WORST 43
CHAPTER V.
THE STORM BURSTS 56
CHAPTER VI.
GATHERING COURAGE FROM DESPAIR 73
CHAPTER VII.
A CONTRAST 83
CHAPTER VIII.
TREADING OUT THE GRAIN 91
CHAPTER IX.
A LITTLE SUNSHINE 102
CHAPTER X.
LIBERTY IS SWEET 115
CHAPTER XI.
THE RAFT 129
CHAPTER XII.
A DAY OF UNALLOYED PLEASURE 143
CHAPTER XIII.
CANNOT GIVE IT UP 156
CHAPTER XIV.
THE BEAN-POT 167
CHAPTER XV.
THE SURPRISE 177
CHAPTER XVI.
THE DAWN OF A LIFE-PURPOSE 193
CHAPTER XVII.
SELF-RELIANCE 209
CHAPTER XVIII.
FRUITS OF PATIENCE AND PERSEVERANCE 226
CHAPTER XIX.
TRIUMPH OF THOUGHT AND INGENUITY 246
CHAPTER XX.
UNCLE SETH'S SURPRISE 264
CHAPTER XXI.
NED RANGELY 273
CHAPTER XXII.
CARRYING THE WAR INTO AFRICA 294
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE QUAKER'S APPEAL TO THE DELAWARES 309
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE RETURN OF THE CAPTIVE 323
FOREST GLEN;
OR,
THE MOHAWK'S FRIENDSHIP.
CHAPTER I.
THE BREWING OF THE STORM.
Our story opens at that period of the year when summer is fast verging
to autumn.
As the wind that had blown fresh during the night diminished, about
eleven o'clock in the forenoon, to a gentle breeze, the heat in
the valley of Wolf Run, hemmed in by mountains, became excessive.
Corn-blades rolled up, pitch oozed from the logs of which the houses
were built, all broad-leaved plants wilted, and the high temperature
was adapted to produce an unusual sluggishness.
Stewart, who held the day-watch at the fort, seated on the platform
over the gate, was sound asleep. Half a dozen sheep lay in the shade
of the walls, panting, with mouths wide open. Not a person was to be
seen in the vicinity of the houses or in the fields. Not a rooster had
sufficient courage to crow, or even a dog to bark. The windmill inside
the stockade made one or two revolutions; but, as the wind died away,
gave up with a groan, and remained motionless.
The profound silence was rudely broken by the successive discharge
of fire-arms. The sentinel awoke, and grasped his rifle; but, after
listening a few moments, settled back in his corner, and was soon once
more asleep. Two of the sheep rose up, but in a few moments lay down
again.
The firing continued at intervals for more than an hour, no notice
being taken of it by the sentry, who, in the mean time, finished his
nap.
If our readers will go with us in the direction of the river, we will
endeavor to find out what it is all about, and shall perceive that the
settlers were improving the leisure interval between hay and grain
harvest, in making preparations for future exigencies.
On a level plat of ground, not far from the bank of the river, were
assembled a band of lads from twelve to fifteen years of age, engaged
in firing at a mark, while several of the settlers were seated on the
grass, looking at them.
The fearful peril of their position, together with their inferiority
in numbers, had compelled the parents to train their children to arms,
even at that tender age; and, though unable to hold out a gun steadily,
they were no mean marksmen when shooting from a rest.
These little folks had organized themselves into a company, with the
ferocious title of "The Screeching Catamounts," in rivalry of the older
boys, who styled themselves "The Young Defenders."
They had hewn the bark and sap-wood from a lone pine, and a black spot
in the centre of the white wood served as a target. Eighty-five yards
was the distance for a smooth gun, while for rifles, with which some
of the boys were armed, it was a hundred. A rest was made by driving
two stakes into the ground, and putting a withe across for them to fire
over. Sam Sumerford, Archie Crawford, and Tony Stewart hit the black
circle, though neither of them in the centre, but not varying half
an inch; several touched the edge of it; and no one missed the tree,
although one or two put their balls in the bark, outside the white
spot, or "blaze" as it was called in frontier phrase.
They next engaged in throwing the tomahawk; after which, forming ranks,
the band marched to the fort, and deposited their arms.
It is needful briefly to inform those who have not read the previous
volumes, of the circumstances of the settlers to whom they are rather
abruptly introduced, and the probable nature of those exigencies in
view of which they had long been making preparations.
When the Indian war broke out, the Provincial government gave up the
original frontier, from which nearly all the settlers who survived the
Indian attack had already fled, and established a line of forts nearer
the old settlements, behind which it was supposed the savages would
not penetrate, and where the fugitives might cultivate the land in
comparative safety.
This system of defence had, upon trial, proved utterly inadequate. The
greater part of the money raised for that purpose was expended at the
very outset in building, arming, and provisioning the forts; and even
then they were but scantily provided, either with arms or ammunition.
A commissioner reported that in one of them he found but four pounds
of powder. Flints were often wanting; many of the guns were unfit for
use, the locks in some instances being fastened on with strings. So
great was the poverty of the Province, that a man who brought his own
gun and blanket was allowed a dollar per month for their use above
his pay. In addition to this, the forts were eight, ten, sixteen, and
even twenty miles apart. The great cause of all the destruction of
life and property that took place arose from the want of any military
organization.
The original population of Pennsylvania were entirely opposite in all
their views and practices to the settlers of Virginia, Maryland, and
the New-England States, who came armed and prepared for self-defence
or conquest. But the government of Pennsylvania was based upon the
principle of non-resistance. The Quakers came unarmed; and, as they
made no resistance, so they gave no offence. They did as they would be
done by, while the savages on their part did as they were done by; and
thus matters went on smoothly for nearly seventy years.
In process of time, other races came in, and people with other views.
The Scotch and Irish settlers, and those from Maryland, Virginia, and
the New-England States, who were by no means careful of giving offence,
looked upon the natives as vermin to be extirpated like the wolves and
bears, to make room for others. Though in a minority, they inflicted
injuries upon the Indians, and stirred them up to revenge.
But the bulk of the population were Quakers, Germans, Swedes, and
English. The Germans only desired to till the ground, with no wish to
fight, unless compelled to in self-defence. The English and Swedes were
much of the same mind. Thus while the Indians, through a series of
years, had been irritated, there was in the Province no militia-law:
the inhabitants were incapable of acting in concert; and, when the
storm long brewing burst, were, as a whole, defenceless, unarmed, and
divided in sentiment, and ran at the attack of the Indians like sheep
before wolves.
It was from such a population that the majority of the men to man the
forts and protect the country must be drawn, the hunters, trappers,
and Scotch-Irish preferring to defend their own families, or to go on
scalping-expeditions, which were vastly more profitable than serving
for the small pay given the soldiers, and there was no law to _compel_
service.
When the forts were built, it was supposed that the garrisons in them,
by patrolling from one to another, would keep back the savages. It was
also made the duty of the commanders in the several forts to detail a
certain portion of their men to protect the farmers while planting and
gathering their harvest, as well as promptly furnish a refuge to which
the inhabitants might flee in case of an invasion.
We shall now see how comparatively useless this method of defence
was, because there was no militia-law, and in the population none of
the spirit which such a law creates. Forts are of little use without
suitable soldiers to defend them. A few facts would set this matter in
a striking light, and afford our readers a clear view of the situation.
The commissioner appointed to examine the condition of the forts
reported: At Fort Lebanon he called out the men, and put up a mark
for them to fire at eighty yards distant, and but fifteen out of
twenty-eight could hit within two feet of the bull's eye. At Fort
Allemingle, he put the mark on a tree eighty-five yards distant; and
only four out of twenty-five hit the tree, and not one the bull's eye.
So much for the marksmanship of these fort soldiers: now for their
courage.
It is on record that Hugh Micheltree was attacked by Indians within
speaking distance of Patterson's fort; and though he begged the men in
the fort to rescue him, telling them there were but six Indians, they
had not the courage to leave the fort, but permitted the savages to
take him off before their eyes.
Forts were often built at gaps of mountain-chains for the purpose of
commanding these passes. Those might have been formidable obstacles
to regular troops encumbered with baggage and artillery, but not in
respect to savages. Every place is a pass to an Indian with a little
parched corn in his pouch, and armed with rifle and tomahawk: he sets
forth, and neither swamps, mountains, nor rivers bar his progress when
on the war-path. He can eat ground-nuts, mice, frogs, wood-worms,
or snakes: nothing comes amiss; or, if afraid of discovering his
whereabouts by discharging his rifle, he can kill game with the bow.
Noiselessly as the gliding snake they passed between the forts, easily
eluding the scouts posted on so long and thin a line, and were often
butchering the inhabitants in one direction while the scouts were
looking for them in another.
The history of that period records that in several instances while a
band of soldiers from the forts were guarding farmers gathering their
harvest, the Indians have crept up, shot the soldiers, and afterwards
butchered the farmers thus left defenceless.
The Indians, whom nothing escaped, often improved the opportunity, when
the number of a garrison was reduced by details, to attack the forts.
Ascertaining that there was but a small supply of ammunition in Fort
Granville, they attacked and took it, when twenty-three men, three
women, and several children fell into their hands. After promising to
spare the lives of the garrison if they would surrender, they fastened
to a post the very man who opened the gate for them, and thrust red-hot
gun-barrels through his body.
A very different sort of people from those just described, were the
settlers of the Forest Glen; rough-handed, high-spirited men of the
frontier, who could plant the second bullet in the same hole with the
first, and drive it home. Disdaining the aid of soldiers whom they held
in utter contempt, they had thus far, though suffering fearful losses,
held their own, inflicting more injuries than they received, and had
been busily employed for a few weeks in putting themselves in a posture
of defence preparatory to gathering the harvest.
Rifles had been put in order, tomahawks ground, the roofs of the
buildings fresh plastered with clay mortar as a protection against the
fire-arrows of the Indians, and gun-flints manufactured from Indian
arrow-heads by Holdness to eke out their scanty supply, and the woods
and ravines carefully examined every day to detect signs of lurking
savages. Though the settlers were living in their own houses, for the
greater convenience of harvesting, the cattle were driven at night to
the garrison.
Notwithstanding their preparations for a stout defence, the settlers
could not avoid anxiety, in view of the fact that the savages had
during the last few months changed their method of attack. Finding that
the log houses of the whites, when resolutely defended, bade defiance
to the efforts of their scalping-parties, consisting usually of but
twelve or fifteen, they had latterly come in bodies of seventy and even
a hundred, often led by French officers, with French soldiers in their
ranks, and bringing field-pieces.
There were, however, no signs of perturbation, and whatever anxiety
they felt was manifested only in increased watchfulness; and many
of them, having completed their preparations for defence, occupied
themselves in clearing land for future crops, a portion keeping watch
while the rest labored.
Others devoted the time to rest, perhaps considering it very doubtful
if the isolated settlement survived the attacks that were to be
expected during harvest.
We trust that what has been said will render the story that follows
intelligible to those not familiar with the other volumes of this
series, or the history of the period.