Chapter XXXI: Appendix: Narrative (5)

I mean not to point out the following circumstance as the immediate judgment of Heaven, and intended as an atonement for this slaughter, but I cannot omit that very few of those different tribes of Indians that shared in it ever lived to return home. The small-pox, by means of their communication with the Europeans, found its way among them, and made an equal havoc to what they themselves had done. The methods they pursued on the first attack of that malignant disorder, to abate the fever attending it, rendered it fatal. While their blood was in a state of fermentation, and nature was striving to throw out the peccant matter, they checked her operations by plunging into the water; the consequence was that they died by hundreds. The few that survived, were transformed by it into hideous objects, and bore with them to the grave deep indented marks of this much dreaded disease.

Monsieur Montcalm fell soon after on the plains of Quebec.

That the unprovoked cruelty of this commander was not approved of by the generality of his countrymen, I have since been convinced of by many proofs. Only one, however, which I received from a person who was witness to it, shall I at present give. A Canadian merchant, of some consideration, having heard of the surrender of the English fort, celebrated the fortunate event with great rejoicings and hospitality, according to the custom of that country; but no sooner did the news of the massacre which ensued reach his ears, than he put an immediate stop to the festivities, and exclaimed in the severest terms against the inhuman permission; declaring at the same time that those who had connived at it had thereby drawn down on that part of their king's dominions the vengeance of Heaven. To this he added, that he much feared the total loss of them, would deservedly be the consequence. How truly this prediction has been verified, we well know.

NARRATIVE OF THE CAPTIVITY

OF

MRS. SCOTT.

Mrs. Scott, a resident of Washington county, Virginia, was taken captive by Indians on the night of the twenty-ninth of June, 1785. Her husband and all her children were slain; and before morning she was forced to commence her march through the wilderness.

On the eleventh day of her captivity, while in charge of four Indians, provision becoming scarce, a halt was made, and three of the number went on a hunting excursion. Being left in the care of an old man, she made him believe she was reconciled to her condition, and thus threw him off his guard. Anxious to escape, and having matured her plans, she asked him, in the most disinterested manner possible, to let her go to a small stream, near by, and wash her apron, which was besmeared with the blood of one of her children. He gave her leave, and while he was busy in "graining a deer-skin," she started off. Arriving at the stream, without a moment's hesitation, she pushed on in the direction of a mountain. Traveling till late at night, she came into a valley where she hoped to find the track along which she had been taken by her captors, and thereby be able to retrace her steps. Hurrying across the valley to the margin of a river, which she supposed must be the eastern branch of the Kentucky, she discovered in the sand the tracks of two men who had followed the stream upward and returned. Thinking them to be the prints of pursuers, and that they had returned from the search, she took courage, thanked God, and was prepared to continue her flight.

On the third day she came very near falling into the hands of savages, a company whom she supposed had been sent to Clinch river on a pilfering excursion. Hearing their approach before they came in sight, she concealed herself, and they passed without noticing her. She now became greatly alarmed, and was so bewildered as to lose her way and to wander at random for several days.

At length, coming to a stream that seemed to flow from the east, she concluded it must be Sandy river; and resolving to trace it to its source, which was near a settlement where she was acquainted, she pushed on for several days, till she came into mountainous regions and to craggy steeps. There, in the vicinity of a "prodigious waterfall," she was forced to leap from a precipice, upon some rocks, and was so stunned as to be obliged to make a short delay in her journey.

Soon after passing through the mountain, (Laurel mountain,) she was bitten by a snake which she supposed was venomous. She killed it, and expected her turn to die would come next; but the only injury she received was some pain and the slight swelling of one foot. A writer, whose narration we follow, and whose facts are more reliable than his philosophy, thinks that, being "reduced to a mere skeleton, with fatigue, hunger and grief," she was probably, on that account, "saved from the effects of the poisonous fangs."

Leaving the river, Mrs. Scott came to a forked valley, and watching the flight of birds, took the branch they did, and in two days came in sight of New Garden, the settlement on Clinch river, before referred to. Thus, after wandering in the wilderness for six long weeks, almost destitute of clothing, without a weapon of defense or instrument for obtaining provision; exposed to wild beasts and merciless savages; subsisting a full month on the juice of young cane stalks, sassafras leaves and similar food, looking to God in prayer for guidance by day, and for protection by night, shielded from serious harm, and led by an unseen Hand, on the eleventh of August, the wanderings of the widowed and childless captive were brought to a close.

J.C.

THE END.

Transcriber's Notes:

Variations in spelling have been preserved except in obvious cases of typographical error.

Variations in transliterations of Indian words have been left as printed, unless otherwise noted below.

Footnotes in the original text were marked with symbols at the page level. Footnote symbol markers have been replaced with sequential footnote numbers for the entire text.

Page 10: The numbering of sections, beginning on this page with "No. II.", does not include a section marked as "No. I." in the original publication.

Page 40: Transcribed "Murphy s" as "Murphy". As originally printed: "... brought us to a Mr. Murphy s, the sponsor of Murphy's settlement."

Page 55: Transcribed "nigh" as "high". As originally printed: "The first view of this vista of nigh land plains was magnificent."

Page 100: Unusual word formation (or typesetting error)--"her's" --left as printed. As originally printed: "She rested with her's suspended in her hands..."

Page 100: Supplied missing ending quotation (for material beginning with '"It was him only...') after the following words: "It is my funeral song. Farewell."

Page 109: Supplied missing ending quotation (for material beginning with '"were I to exert my utmost power') after the following words: "But you will respect me, and not eat my kind."

Page 109: Transcribed "MASH-" as "MAeSH-" for consistency with the transliteration in the remainder of this section. As originally printed: "MASH-KWA-SHA-KWONG, was a first rate hunter...."

Page 119: Transcribed "breath" as "breadth". As originally printed: "... or hair-breath escape among the Red Men."

Page 145: "Mis siss ip pi." in list of words is missing accent mark in the original publication.

Page 150: Transcribed "chiefs" as "chief's". As originally printed: "... as to some points connected with this chiefs character...."

Page 170-1: The appearance of references imbedded in the text as "No.", followed by a numeral, are limited to these pages in the publication and have no corresponding explanation in the text.

Page 196: Quotation beginning with '"There was, in ancient times,' has no closing quote in the original publication.

Page 227: Numbered stanzas in the psalm's English rendition begin with 2. There is no reference to 1 in the original publication. The number 2 is indented in the original publication as transcribed here.

Page 227: Text in the original publication has malformed print, with the word ending the following sentence partially illegible: "My soul he doth restore ag". The sentence has been transcribed here as: "My soul he doth restore again".

Page 268: Transcribed "Song" as "Soeng" for consistency with the transliteration on page 267. As originally printed: "Strong Song izzi Song izzid".

Page 271: The sentence "Minwaewa, a pleasant sound." was printed twice in the original publication. One iteration of the duplicate sentence has been removed in this transcription.

Page 274: Transcribed "Odizzhewabizziwin" as "Odizzhewaebizziwin" for consistency with other transliterations of the syllable "-waeb" on this page. As originally printed: "Odizzhewabizziwin mahmowee onishishinine."

Pages 286-8: As printed, the text on pages numbered 286 and 287 was placed in reverse order. In this transcription, the text from page 287 has been placed on the page numbered 286 and the text from page 286 has been placed on the page numbered 287. Text beginning at the top of page 288 does not flow from the text at the end of page 287, so material may have been missed when the text was typeset.

Pages 292 & 294: References to page numbers (e.g., "p. 43") do not correspond to previous pages in this publication. Presumably, these refer to pages in the source text from which this excerpt has been copied.

Page 299: Transcribed "Medas" as "Metas". As originally printed: "... a personal acquaintance with one of their Medas...."

Page 303: The numbering of sections, beginning on this page with "2.", does not include a section marked as "1." in the original publication.

Page 304: Transcribed "Rensselear" as "Rensselaer". As originally printed: "... the present area of Rensselear and Columbia counties...."

Page 311: The signature "Henry R. Colcraft" followed a letter in the text entitled: "Letters On The Antiquities of the Western Country, Addressed to the Late William L. Stone, Editor of the New York Commercial Advertiser." In an edition of a periodical entitled The New World, Vol. 6, May 13, 1843, an article references "Mr. H.R. Colcraft, Esq., better known by the name of Schoolcraft, through his various writings relative to our Aborigines."

Page 354: Transcribed "succors" as "succor". As originally printed: "... that ever asked succors from Bacchus...."

Page 377: Dollar amount printed as "... the annual interest paid to them was $131,05." has been left as printed, although this appears to be a typesetting error.

Page 379: Two dollar amounts printed as "$515,230 44" and "$27,063 83" are missing decimal points in the original publication.

Page 393: Paragraphs are numbered 2 and 3 here, but there is no preceding paragraph numbered 1 in the original publication.

Page 394: Transcribed "Go Nosis" as "Ho Nosis" for consistency with additional renderings of the phrase "Ho Nosis" on this page. As originally printed: "Go Nosis, and tell him your uncles fixed them so, when they came from the South."

Page 395: Transcribed "Tah hau" as "Tah kau" in its second appearance on this page. As originally printed: "Tah hau (where ah!)".

Page 415: An asterisk printed at the end of the phrase "Blood of the Dauntless brings", and a dagger symbol at the end of the phrase "Mine, whose grave-pennon floats", presumably intended to mark footnotes, have been removed since there are no corresponding notes on the page.

End of Project Gutenberg's The American Indians, by Henry R. Schoolcraft