CARRYING THE WAR INTO AFRICA.
The settlers now removed their families into the fort preparatory to
the departure of the volunteers. The Black Rifle had sent them, by
Grant and Crawford, a large quantity of powder and lead; and, on the
night that the last family moved into the fort, four more of the Black
Rifle's men came, having finished up their work.
These men brought word that eight or ten more would be along in a few
days, and said that their purpose was to get ready for their fall hunt,
and ambush the Indians who were going back and forth between the Ohio
and the older settlements; making the fort their headquarters, and
always leaving men enough to defend it.
Hearing this, the settlers resolved to march in a body the next
morning, young and old.
Rogers, who had cut himself so badly with an axe that he could not
engage in the last conflict with the Indians, was now able to go. Mr.
Seth, however, objected to this. "Neighbors," said he, "you all know
I'm no fighting man, don't pretend to be; and yet you're kind enough to
say that I'm of some benefit."
"Benefit!" exclaimed Holdness, "there's no man among us who's so great
a benefit."
"Well, then, I hope you'll be patient with me when I say that I can't
feel reconciled to have Israel go. We've never been separated, and I've
always kind of leaned on him. I don't know what I should do without
him: I should neither eat, sleep, nor take one moment's peace."
"Then I won't go, brother, though I do want to more'n ever I wanted to
go anywhere in my life."
"I think," said McClure, "that there ought to be more'n one stay: there
are the cattle and hogs to see to, and many things that the rangers
don't know any thing about to be done, though I don't suppose any of us
cares to be the one to stay behind."
Every preparation being completed, the volunteers set out the next
morning for the rendezvous.
After their departure the children were somewhat restrained in their
rambles, and Sammy experienced a severe relapse of the pottery-fever.
He also found less difficulty in obtaining the help of the others to
work his clay: besides, the usefulness of his work had been recognized
by every one in the Run; and, when the boys were unwilling to assist,
Israel Blanchard would let him have Scip, who was worth more than all
the others put together.
Ike Proctor was the laziest, and least inclined to help, of any of the
boys. Sammy hired him to turn the wheel half a day for some maple-sugar
and two bullets. Ike ate the sugar, pocketed the bullets, worked about
an hour, and then went off. Sammy said nothing, and manifested no
feeling in regard to the affair; but, as soon as Ike left, went to the
river, obtained a little of the clay that was strongly impregnated with
iron, worked and kneaded it, working in some red ochre to raise the
color still more, and made some clay doughnuts precisely the shape of
those his mother was accustomed to make of dough, and baked them.
After several days had passed, he told Ike if he would help him half a
day, and stick to it, when the work was done he would give him a dozen
doughnuts and four gun-flints, boughten ones; and to this Proctor
agreed.
When the time was up, Sam gave him the flints, and went to the fort
for the doughnuts, that he had given his mother a charge to keep hot
in the Dutch oven, and put a little lard on them. Sammy took the clay
doughnuts in a cloth, and when warm and greasy they looked precisely
like the real ones: he took one flour doughnut in his pocket. He spread
them out on the table before Ike, and clapped the one from his pocket
into his mouth, saying, "Eat 'em, Ike, while they're hot: only see how
hot they be."
[Illustration: THE "DOUGHNUT" SQUABBLE.--Page 297.]
"So they be," said Ike, taking one in his hand: he attempted to bite
it, burnt his tongue, and the tears came into his eyes. He threw the
hot brick down in a great rage, and began throwing the others at
Sammy's head. The latter retreated to the trough that was two-thirds
full of soft clay trodden only the day before, and returned the attack
with right good-will in a most generous manner. He plastered Ike from
head to foot, filled his eyes, nose, and mouth full; and he was glad
to make his escape. The boys all said Sam served him right, and they
nicknamed him "_Doughnut_."
It was very seldom that there was ever any falling-out among these
frontier-boys, who were, in general, a band of brothers, for the reason
that they had fighting enough outside, and the pressure kept them
together.
Uncle Seth was now in the best of spirits, having the society of his
brother, in whose courage and sagacity he placed implicit confidence,
with the Black Rifle and his men to protect them; and he resolved to
make Sammy a foot-wheel, and thus render him independent of his mates
and all others as far as turning the wheel was concerned.
Guarded by two of the rangers, he went into the woods to find a tree
that grew of the right shape to make a crank. You may think it would
be impossible to find a tree trunk or limb that would answer, as it
must be a double crank with a short turn, the sides not more than
three inches apart. He could have sawed it out of a plank, or made it
in pieces; but in the one case it would have been cut directly across
the grain, and in the other would have been without much strength
and very clumsy. He wanted to find a tree the grain of which grew in
the right direction. No wonder Mr. Seth declared,--when he thought
Sammy's pottery-fever would not last long, and wanted to get rid of
his teasing,--that it was impossible to make a crank without iron. But
he was now disposed to make the attempt; and you know, if Uncle Seth
undertakes to do any thing, it will be done.
The rangers who were with him expected to see him looking up into the
tops of the trees, among the limbs; but instead of that they were
astonished to see him running about with his eyes fastened on the butts
of the trees, and never bestowing a glance at the limbs.
"You hunting after a bear's den, or a coon-hole?" said Will Blythe.
Mr. Seth made no reply, but stopped before a sugar-tree about fifteen
inches through, and straight as a candle. From one side of this
tree, about two feet from the ground, protruded a great whorl, not
flattened on the top as they often are, like a wart on the hand, but
thimble-shaped.
"That's the time of day," said he. Stripping to the waist, he soon cut
the tree down, and junked it off,--twenty feet of it. This was hauled
to the fort, where the saw-pit was; and the brothers cut the whole tree
into three-inch plank, as they wanted part of it for another purpose.
They arranged their saw-kerfs in such a manner as to bring the centre
of the whorl in the plank of which the spindle and crank were to be
made. This plank they cut to the length desired, and then split it the
other way, leaving a strip four inches in width, and the whorl being on
the outside edge of it.
In this whorl Mr. Seth cut the turn of his crank; and it was strong
because the principal part of the grain grew in that direction, being
looped around the whorl; and in other portions it crossed every way,
twisted in and out, was clung, and looked much like the grain of a
nutmeg. After roughing it out, he laid it up to season, in order that
he might smooth it up. Tysdale, who chanced to pass just as he finished
working on it, said,--
"If that ain't one way to make a crank!"
"Isn't it a good way?"
"Good way, sartain; but a man must be born in the woods to think of
that."
"I was born in the woods, and have worked in the woods most of the time
since I was born."
He now made a wheel three feet in diameter, with rim and hub and but
four spokes, finished up his crank, put the wheel on the bottom of it,
and attached a treadle to the crank, so that it could be turned with
the foot, and placed in the bench. On the upper end of the crank, he
cut a screw-thread; and got out, from the same plank that furnished
the crank, three circles of different sizes, on which large or small
pots might be made, and cut a screw-thread in the centre of each one,
so that they could be put on or taken from the crank easily. This was
not all. He was no mean blacksmith. He found, among the guns last taken
from the Indians, one of which the barrel was good for nothing; and,
going into the blacksmith-shop, he made a gudgeon for the lower end of
the crank, and an iron socket for it to run in. He also bushed the hole
in the bench, where the crank-spindle passed through, with horn, which
made it run much more easily.
Thus Sammy had a potter's wheel at last, which he could use alone, and
on which he could turn pots of the largest size.
Was he not a happy boy! and didn't he hug, praise, and thank Uncle Seth!
He had, in his practice, accumulated a large number of little pots at
the Cuthbert house. They were too small to be of much use; and he was
by no means satisfied with the workmanship, as he found he could do
much better work with his wheel: so he flung them all into the trough,
put water on them, and made them into dough again; this being one
advantage a potter has over other mechanics,--if he makes a blunder, he
has not destroyed his material, but can work it over.
Sammy now, instead of making a great number of vessels, endeavored to
improve the quality of his wares, and turned milk-pans on this wheel
with the greatest ease. It also required much time to bake them; for,
though he had enlarged his kiln, it was still quite small; and he began
to think about trying to make brick, and building such a one as he had
heard Mr. Seth say the potters had. Thus one invention, like one sin,
necessitates another. Finding, however, that he had already supplied
the settlement with pots and pans sufficient to last them a long time,
he concluded to defer that enterprise for the present.
Children have little idea of the anxieties of their parents; and while
they had not the least doubt but Col. Armstrong and his men would lick
all the Indians on the Ohio (for three hundred men seemed an immense
force to them, enough to overcome any number of Indians), their parents
knew the object would not be attained without loss; and none knew but
they might be called to mourn the loss of friends.
Two of the rangers went to McDowell's mill, and learned that the force
had left the beaver-dams, which place was well on their way, and that
the matter must be decided one way or the other very soon.
A few days after, they went again, and brought word that there was no
doubt but Col. Armstrong had surprised the Indian town, killed a good
many of them, and burnt up their log houses. There was a flying report
that Col. Armstrong was killed, Lieut. Hogg and several men killed, and
some wounded, but that the loss had not been severe.
After a week of agonizing suspense, the settlers were roused at
midnight by the report of a rifle, and, turning out in expectation of
an attack, found the whole party, with the exception of Honeywood, at
the gate; not a man among them hurt, though several had bullets shot
through their clothes, and McClure's rifle had been struck and chipped
by a ball. Never had the Wolf Run settlers come out of an Indian fight
before, without more serious consequences. They informed those at home
that they found the Indians in log houses that were loop-holed and well
prepared for defence. In these houses they had stored a great quantity
of powder, enough, as the Indians boasted, to last them ten years, that
had been given them by the French; and they were then preparing to
attack Fort Shirley, aided by French officers and soldiers.
Capt. Jacobs, the great war-chief of the Indians, was killed; and many
of them, refusing quarter, were burned and blown up in their houses.
"When did you see my husband last? and how came you to be separated
from him?" said Mrs. Honeywood.
"When we came within a few miles of the Indian town," said Holdness,
"he and Rangely were sent out to scout, and discovered three Indians
round a fire. Col. Armstrong didn't want to molest these Indians, for
fear of alarming the town: so he ordered Lieut. Hogg with twelve men,
among whom was your husband and Rangely, to keep watch of 'em while
he went forward to the town with the main body, with orders to fall
upon these Indians at daybreak, at which time he would attack the
Indian village. The lieutenant obeyed orders, killed three of them at
the first fire, when it turned out that instead of three there were
twenty-four, the rest lying in the woods."
"What were those Indians about there?" said Blanchard.
"They were an advance party, on their way to Fort Shirley. They killed
Rangely and three more, mortally wounded the lieutenant, and forced the
rest to retreat."
"How did you know this?"
"We got it from a party who separated from the rest after the action,
and found the lieutenant lying wounded on the ground alone, and the
bodies of those who had been killed lying around him. Your husband
was not among the killed; no one knew any thing about him; and we
reckoned he had retreated with the others, and we should find him at
the beaver-dams, or on the road; and, not finding him at either place,
made up our minds, that, having found out the Indians were licked, he
had taken the shortest cut through the woods for the Run; and 'spected
ter find him here afore us."
This force having been raised for the sole purpose of capturing the
Indian village, their obligations ended with the accomplishment of that
object. At first they had no serious anxiety in respect to Honeywood.
Holdness and McClure knew that his body had not been found, though the
woods had been thoroughly searched. They did not believe that when the
Indians must have known by the firing, that their village was attacked
by a strong force, they would encumber themselves with a prisoner, but,
if they had taken him, would have killed and scalped him. But when
day after day passed away, and they heard that other stragglers had
returned, and Honeywood came not, the alarm was universal; and they
knew that he was a captive to the Indians.
It was then manifest how much Honeywood was beloved and respected.
Every man was willing to encounter any danger to rescue him; and even
the children could find no heart to play, and burst into tears when
they found he was a captive.
The Black Rifle and three of his men went in one direction; Harry
Sumerford, Ned Armstrong, and Cal Holdness, in another; and Israel
Blanchard, McClure, and Holdness, in still another,--in order to lurk
around the Indian villages and camping-places, to find where he was
held captive, that they might attempt either rescue or ransom.
But all their efforts were fruitless: because, as was afterwards known,
the party who had captured Honey wood, finding their town attacked by
so large a force, fled with their prisoner across the Alleghany and
into the territories of the Six Nations, where only, after the first
alarm created by Armstrong's attack, they could feel secure.
It was a gloomy period at the Run, when one party after another would
come in without tidings.
"If," said Mrs. Sumerford, "the Almighty ever did hear prayer for any
thing or any body, and I know he has and does, he will for this good
man: he'll never let those savages torture their best friend."
"He permitted the Jews to torture the Saviour, their best friend,"
replied Mrs. Honeywood. "We have no right to say what God in his wisdom
will or will not permit; but, if the Indians tie him to the stake, I
believe he will enable him to bear it, and will support me likewise."
"The church," said Mrs. Sumerford, "prayed for Peter, and the Lord sent
his angel: perhaps he will hear our prayers for him."
These good women then resolved they would meet every afternoon in the
schoolhouse, and pray.