USA > Indiana > Early Indiana trials: and sketches. Reminiscences > Part 45
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" On the twenty-second of December, John Stuart and I had a pleas- ing ramble ; but fortune changed the day at the close of it. We passed through a great forest, in which stood myriads of trees, some gay with blossoms, others rich with fruits. Nature was here a series of wonders and a fund of delight. Here she displayed her ingenuity and industry in a variety of flowers and fruits, beautifully colored, elegantly shaped, and charmingly flavored; and we were favored with numberless ani- mals presenting themselves perpetually to our view. In the decline of the day near Kentucky river, as we ascended the brow of a small hill, a number of Indians rushed out of a canebrake and made us prisoners. The Indians plundered us, and kept us in confinement
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seven days. During that time, we discovered ne uneasiness or desire to escape, which made them less suspicious ; but in the dead of night, as we lay by a large fire in a thick canebrake, when sleep had loeked up their senses, my situation not disposing me to rest, I gently awoke my companion. We seized this favorable opportunity and departed, directing our course toward the old eamp, but found it plundered and our company destroyed or dispersed.
" About this time, as my brother with another adventurer who came to explore the country shortly after us, was wandering through the forest, they accidentally found our camp. Notwithstanding our unfor- tunate circumstances, and our dangerous situation, surrounded with hostile savages, our meeting fortunately in the wilderness gave us the most sensible satisfaction.
" Soon after this my companion in captivity John Stuart, was killed by the savages, and the man who came with my brother, while en a private excursion, was soon after attacked and killed by the wolves. We were now in a dangerous and helpless situation, exposed daily to perils and death, among savages and wild beasts, not a white man in the country but ourselves.
"Although many hundred miles from our families, in the howling wilderness, we did not continue in a state of indolenee, but hunted every day, and prepared a little cottage to defend us from the winter. On the first day of May, 1770, my brother returned home, for a new recruit of horses and ammunition, leaving me alone, without bread, salt, er sugar, or even a horse er a dog. I passed a few days uncom- fortably. The idea of a beloved wife and family, and their anxiety on my account, would have disposed me to melancholy if I had further indulged the thought.
" One day I undertook a tour through the country, when the diver- sity and beauties of nature I met with in this charming season, expelled every gloomy thought. Just at the close of the day, the gentle gales ceased; a profound calm ensued ; not a breath shook the tremulous leaf. I had gained the summit of a commanding ridge, and looking around with astonishing delight, beheld the ample plains and beauteous tracts below. On one hand, I surveyed the famous Ohio rolling in silent dignity, and marking the western boundary of Kentucky with inconceivable grandeur. At a vast distance, I beheld the mountains lift their venerable brows and penetrate the clouds. All things were still. I kindled a fire near a fountain of sweet water, and feasted on the loin of a buek which I killed a few hours before. The shades of night soon overspread the hemisphere, and the earth seemed to be gasping after the hovering meisture. At a distance I
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frequently heard the hideous yells of savages. My excursion had fatigued my body and amused my mind. I laid me down to sleep, and awoke not until the sun had chased away the night. I continued this tour, and in a few days explored a considerable part of the coun- try, each day equally pleasing as the first. After which I returned to my old camp, which had not been disturbed in my absence. I did not confine my lodging to it, but often reposed in thick canebrakes to avoid the savages, who, I believe, frequently visited my camp, but for- tunately for me, in my absence. No populous city, with all its vari- eties of commerce and stately structures, could afford such pleasure to my mind, as the beauties of nature I found in this country.
" Until the twenty-seventh day of July, I spent my time in an uninterrupted scene of sylvan pleasures, when my brother, to my great felicity, met me, according to appointment, at our old camp. Soon after we left the place, and proceeded to Cumberland river, recon- uoitering that part of the country, and giving names to the different rivers.
" In March, 1771, I returned home to my family, being determined to bring them as soon as possible, at the risk of my life and fortune, to reside in Kentucky, which I esteemed a second paradise.
"On my return, I found my family in happy circumstances. I sold my farm on the Yadkin, and what goods we could not carry with us, and on the twenty-fifth of September, 1773, we took leave of our friends and proceeded on our journey to Kentucky, in company with five more families, and forty men that joined us in Powell's Valley, which is one hundred and fifty miles from the new-settled parts of Kentucky. But this promising beginning was soon overcast with a cloud of adversity.
"On the tenth of October the rear of our company was attacked by a party of Indians, who killed six, and wounded one man. Of these my oldest son was one that fell in the action. Though we repulsed the enemy, yet this unhappy affair scattered our cattle and brought us into extreme difficulty. We returned forty miles to the settlement on Clench river. We had passed over two mountains, Powell's and Walden's, and were approaching Cumberland mountains, when this adverse fortune overtook us. These mountains are in the wilderness, in passing from the old settlement in Virginia to Ken- tucky ; are ranged in a southwest and northeast direction ; are of great length and breadth, and not far distant from each other. Over them nature has formed passes less difficult than might be expected from the view of such huge piles. The aspect of these cliffs is so wild and horrid, that it is impossible to behold them without horror.
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" Until the sixth of June, 1774, I remained with my family on the Clench, when myself and another person were solicited by Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, to conduct a number of surveyors to the falls of the Ohio. This was a tour of eight hundred miles, and took sixty- two days.
"On my return, Gov. Dunmore gave me the command of three garrisons during the campaign against the Shawnees. In March, 1765, at the solicitation of a number of gentlemen of North Carolina, I attended their treaty at Wataga with the Cherokee Indians, to pur- chase the lands on the south side of Kentucky river. After this, I undertook to mark out a road in the best passage from the settlements through the wilderness to Kentucky.
" Having collected a number of enterprising men well armed, I soon began this work. We proceeded until we eame within fifteen miles of where Boonsborough now stands, where the Indians attacked us, and killed two and wounded two more of our party. This was on the twenty-seeond of March, 1775. Two days after we were again attacked by them, when we had two more killed and three wounded. After this we proceeded on to Kentucky river without opposition.
" On the first of April, we began to erect the fort of Boonsborough, at a salt lick, sixty yards from the river on the south side. On the fourth, the Indians killed one of our men. On the fourteenth of June, having completed the fort, I returned to my family on the Cleneh, and whom I soon after removed to the fort. My wife and daughter were supposed to be the first white women that ever stood on the banks of the Kentucky river.
" On the twenty-fourth of December, the Indians killed one of our men and wounded another; and on the fifteenth of July, 1776, they took my daughter prisoner. I immediately pursued them with eight men, and on the sixteenth, overtook and engaged them. I killed two of them and recovered my daughter.
" The Indians, having divided themselves into several parties, attacked in one day all our infant settlements and forts, doing a great deal of damage. The husbandmen were ambushed and unexpectedly attacked while toiling in the field. They continued this kind of war- fare until the fifteenth of April, 1777, when nearly one hundred of them attacked the village of Boonsborough, and killed a number of its inhabitants. On the sixteenth, Col. Logan's fort was attacked by two hundred Indians. There were only thirteen men in the fort, of whom the enemy killed two and wounded one.
"On the twentieth of August, Colonel Bowman arrived with one
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hundred men from Virginia, with which additional force we had almost daily skirmishes with the Indians, who began uow to learn the superi- ยท ority of the 'long knife,' as they termed the Virginians ; being out- generaled in almost every action. Our affairs began now to wear a better aspect, the Indians no longer daring to face us in open field, but sought private opportunities to destroy us.
"On the seventh of February, 1778, while on a hunting exeursion alone, I met a party of one hundred and two Indians and two French- men, marching to attack Boonsborough. They pursued and took me prisoner, and conveyed me to Old Chillicothe, the principal Indian town on little Miami, where we arrived on the cighteenth of February, after an uncomfortable journey. On the tenth of March I was con- ducted to Detroit, and while there, was treated with great humanity by Governor Hamilton, the British commander, at that port, and intend- ant for Indian affairs.
" The Indians had such an affection for me, that they refused one hundred pounds sterling, offered them by the governor, if they would eonsent to leave me with him, that he might he enabled to liberate me on my parole. Several English gentlemen then at Detroit, sensible of my adverse fortune and touched with sympathy, generously offerred to supply my wants, which I deelincd with many thanks, adding that I never expected it would be in my power to recompense such unmer- ited generosity.
" On the tenth of April, the Indians returned with me to Old Chil- licothe, where we arrived on the twenty-fifth. This was a long and fatiguing march, although through an exceeding fertile country, remarkable for springs and streams of water. At Chillicothe I spent my time as comfortable as I could expect ; was adopted, according to their custom, into a family where I became a son, and had a great share in the affection of my new parents, brothers, sisters, and friends. I was exceedingly familiar and friendly with them, always appearing as cheerful and contented as possible, and they put great confidence in me. I often went a hunting with them, and frequently gained their applause for my activity at our shooting-matches. I was careful not to exceed many of them in shooting, for no people are more envious than they are in this sport. I could observe in their countenances and gestures the greatest expressions of joy when they excceded me, and when the reverse happened, of envy. The Shawnees king took great notice of me and treated me with profound respect and entire friendship, often intrusting me to hunt at my liberty. I frequently returned with the spoils of the woods, and as often presented some of
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what I had taken to him, expressive of duty to my sovereign. My food and lodging were in common with them, not so good indeed as I could desire, but necessity made every thing acceptable.
" I now began to meditate an eseape, and carefully avoided giving suspicion. I continued at Chillicothe until the first day of June, when I was taken to the salt springs on Seioto, and there employed ten days in the manufacturing of salt. During this time, I hunted with my Indian masters, and found the land for a great extent about this river to exceed the soil of Kentucky.
" On my return to Chillicothe, one hundred and fifty of the choicest Indian warriors were ready to march against Boonsborough. They were painted and armed in a frightful manner. This alarmed me, and I determined to escape.
" On the twenty-sixth of June, before sunrise, I went off secretly, and reached Boonsborough on the thirtieth, a journey of one hundred and sixty miles, during which I had only one meal. I found our fort- ress in a bad state, but we immediately repaired our flanks, gates, posterns, and formed double bastions, which we completed in ten days. One of my fellow prisoners escaped after me, and brought advice, that on account of my flight, the Indians had put off their expedition for three weeks.
" About the first of August, I set out with nineteen men, to surprise Point Creek town on Scioto, within forty miles of which we fell in with forty Indians going against Boonsborough. We attacked them, and they soon gave way without any loss on our part.
" The enemy had one killed and two wounded. We took three horses and all their baggage. The Indians having evacuated their town, and gone altogether against Boonsborough, we returned, passed them on the sixth, and on the seventh, arrived safe at Boonsborough.
" On the ninth, the Indian army, consisting of four hundred and forty-four men, under the command of Captain Duquesne, and eleven other Frenchmen, and their own chiefs, arrived and summoned the fort to surrender. I requested two days' consideration, which was granted. During this we brought in through the posterns all the horses and other cattle we could collect.
" On the ninth, in the evening, I informed their commander, that we were determined to defend the fort while a man was living. They then proposed a treaty-they would withdraw. The treaty was held within sixty yards of the fort, as we suspected the savages. The arti- eles were agreed too and signed; when the Indians told us, it was their custom for two Indians to shake hands with every white man in the treaty, as evidence of friendship. We agreed to this also. They
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immediately grappled us to take us prisoners, but we cleared ourselves of them, though surrounded hy hundreds, and gained the fort safe, except one man, who was wounded by a heavy fire from the enemy.
" The savages now began to undermine the fort, beginning at the watermark of Kentucky river, which is sixty yards from the fort; this we discovered by the water being made muddy by the clay. We countermined them by cutting a trench across their subterraneous passage. The enemy discovering this by the clay we threw out of the fort, desisted. On the twentieth of August, they raised the siege, during which we had two killed and four wounded. We lost a num- ber of cattle. The loss of the enemy was thirty-seven killed, and a much larger number wounded. We picked up one hundred and twenty-five pounds of their bullets, besides what stuck in the logs of the fort.
" In July, 1779, during my absenee, Colonel Bowman, with one hun dred and sixty men, went against the Shawnees of old Chillicothe. He arrived undiscovered. A battle ensued, which lasted until ten in the morning, when Colonel Bowman retreated thirty miles. The Indians collected all their strength, and pursued him, when another engagement ensued for two hours, not to Colonel Bowman's advan- tage. Colonel Harrod proposed to mount a number of horses, and break the enemy's line, who at this time fought with remarkable fury. This desperate measure had a happy effect, and the savages fled on all sides. In these two engagements we had nine men killed and one wounded. Enemy's loss uncertain. Only two scalps were taken.
" June twenty-third, 1780, five hundred Indians and Canadians under Colonel Bird, attacked Riddle and Martain's station, and the forks of Licking river, with six pieces of artillery. They took all the inhabitants captives, and killed one man and two women, loading the others with the heavy baggage, and such as failed in the journey were tomahawked.
" The hostile disposition of the savages caused General Clark, the commandant at the falls of the Ohio, to march with his regiment and the armed force of the country against Pickaway, the principal town of the Shawnees, on a branch of the Great Miami, which he attacked with great success, took seventy scalps, and reduced the town to ashes, with the loss of seventeen men.
" About this time, I returned to Kentucky with my family ; for during my captivity, my wife thinking me killed by the Indians, had transported my family and goods on horses, through the wilderness, amid many dangers, to her father's house in North Carolina.
" On the sixth of October, 1780, soon after my settling again at
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Boonsborough, I went with my brother to the Blue Licks, and on our return he was shot by a party of Indians, who followed me by the seent of a dog, which I shot and eseaped. The severity of the winter caused great distress in Kentucky, the enemy during the summer having destroyed most of the corn. The inhabitants lived chiefly on buffalo's flesh.
" In the spring of 1782, the Indians harassed us. In May they ravished, killed and scalped a woman and her two daughters near Ashton's station, and took a negro. prisoner. Captain Ashton pur- sued them with twenty-five meu, and in an engagement which lasted two hours, his party were obliged to retreat, having eight killed, and four mortally wounded. Their brave commander fell in the action.
" August eighteenth, two boys were carried off from Major Hoy's station. Captain Holder pursued the enemy with seventeen men, who were also defeated, with the loss of seven killed and two wounded. Our affairs became more and more alarming. The savages infested the country and destroyed the whites as opportunity presented. In a field near Lexington, an Indian shot a man, and running to scalp him, was himself shot from the fort, and fell dead upon the ground. All the Indian nations were now united against us.
" August fifteenth, five hundred Indians and Canadians eame against Briant's Station, five miles from Lexington. They assaulted the fort, and killed all the cattle round it; but being repulsed, they retired the third day, having about eighty killed; their wounded uneertain. The garrison had four killed, and nine wounded.
" August eighteenth, Cols. Todd and Trigg, Maj. Harland and my- self, speedily collected one hundred and seventy-six men, well armed, and pursued the savages. They had marehed beyond the Blue Lieks, to a remarkable bend of the main fork of Licking river, about forty- three miles from Lexington, where we overtook them, on the nine- teenth. The savages observing us, gave way, and we, ignorant of their numbers passed the river. When they saw our proceedings, having greatly the advantage in situation, they formed their line of battle from one end of the Lieking to the other, about a mile from the Blue Licks. The engagement was elose and warm for about fifteen minutes, when we, being overpowered by numbers, were obliged to retreat with the loss of sixty-seven men, seven of whom were taken prisoners. The brave and mueh lamented Colonels, Todd and Trigg, Maj. Harland, and my second son, were among the dead. We were afterward informed, that the Indians, on numbering their dead, find- ing that they had four more killed than we, four of our people they
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had taken were given up to their young warriors, to be put to death after their barbarous manner.
" On our retreat, we were met by Col. Logan, who was hastening to join us with a number of well-armed men. This powerful assistance we wanted on the day of battle ; the enemy said, one more fire from . us would have made them give way.
" I can not reflect upon this, dreadful scene without great sorrow. A zeal for the defense of their country led these heroes to the scene of action, though with a few men, to attack a powerful army of experi- eneed warriors. When we gave way they pursued us with the utmost eagerness, and in every quarter spread destruction. The river was difficult to cross, and many were killed in the flight -some just entering the river, some in the water, others after crossing in ascend- ing the cliffs. Some escaped on horseback, a few on foot; and being dispersed every where, in a few hours brought the news of this melan- choly battle to Lexington. Many widows were now made. The reader may guess what sorrow filled the hearts of the inhabitants, exceeding any thing that I am able to describe. Being reinforced, we returned to bury the dead, and found their bodies strewed every where, cut and mangled in a dreadful manner. This mournful scene exhib- ited a horror almost unparalleled -some torn and caten by wild beasts ; those in the river caten by fishes ; all in such a putrid con- dition that no one could be distinguished from another.
" When Gen. Clark, at the falls of Ohio, heard of our disaster, he ordered an expedition to pursue the savages. We overtook them within two miles of their town, and we should have obtained a great victory, had not some of them met us when about two hundred poles from their camp. The savages fled in the utmost disorder, and evac- uated all their towns. We burned to ashes Old Chillicothe, Pickaway, New Chillicothe, and Willstown; entirely destroyed their corn, and other fruits, and spread desolation through their country. We took seven prisoners, and fifteen scalps, and lost only four men, two of whom were accidentally killed by ourselves. This campaign damped the enemy, yet they made secret incursions.
" In October, a party attacked Crab Orchard, and one of them, being a good way before the others, boldly entered a house, in which were only a woman and her children, and a negro man. The savage used no violence, but attempted to carry off the negro, who happily proved too strong for him, and threw him on the ground, and in the struggle the woman cut off his head with an ax, while her little daughter shut the door. The savages instantly came up and applied their tomahawks to
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the door, when the mother putting an old rusty gunbarrel through the erevice, the savages immediately went off.
" From that time till the happy return of peace between the United States and Great Britain, the Indians did us no mischief. Soon after this the Indians desired peace.
" Two darling sons and a brother I have lost by savage hands, which have also taken from me forty valuable horses, and abundance of cattle. Many dark and sleepless nights have I spent separated from the cheerful society of men, scorched by the summer's sun, and pinched by the winter's cold, an instrument ordained to settle the wilderness.
" DANIEL BOONE."
" Fayette county, Kentucky."
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GEN. JOHN TIPTON.
THE subject of this sketch has been noticed as the Ensign hero of Capt. Spencer's company, at the battle of Tippecanoe. He was about the medium hight, well set, short face, round head, low wrinkled fore- head, sunken grey eyes, stern countenance, good ehest, stiff sandy hair, standing erect from his forehead. I found him chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs, when I joined him in the Senate, a position he was eminently qualified for, having been for many years Indian agent, and well acquainted with most of the Western tribes. The General was a man of great energy of character ; was one of the original projeetors of the Wabash and Erie Canal, the longest canal in the world. We lived in different parts of the State. I was only slightly acquainted with him when we met in the Senate. He was frank, confiding, and open as a colleague. We differed politically, but our social intercourse was never marred a moment on that account; we concurred fully on all leading measures we thought calculated to benefit the State, among them was the purchase of the great Miami Reservation on the upper Wabash. The treaty eeding this reserva- tion to the United States came up for ratification in executive session ; we apprehended no difficulty in the matter, but, to our surprise, Sena- tor Niles, of Connecticut, raised the objection, that the lands, by the terms of the treaty, would eost the United States two dollars and fifty cents an acre ; that they would be taken possession of by squatters and pre-empted the moment the treaty was ratified, at one dollar and twenty-five cents, and the United States would lose fifty per cent. ' upon the price paid for the lands. Gen. Tipton met the position with all his power, and I said something on the subject; we tried to place the question upon more enlarged views of the duty of the United States to extinguish the Indian title; that the State of Indiana was not to be prejudieed by the delay of the General Government to extinguish the title to the Miami lands, until they had become so valuable. After we had said all that occurred to us, the vote on the ratification was taken, when all the Senators, except the two Indiana Senators, and the two Illinois Senators, answered " No." Instead of two-thirds of the Senate, we had just four, all in favor of the ratifiea- tion. The Senate adjourned, the General was deeply mortified. We met in the evening at his room. I suggested that we would propose an amendment, fixing the minimum of these lands at two dollars and fifty cents per acre, and exempting them from the operation of the pre-emption laws in force; after some time the General consented that I should draw up the amendment ready to be offered a day or
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