Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

half mile, immediately above the falls, and we have two hundred and feventy-three feet which the water falls in a distance

of about even miles and a half.

8. If either ducks, or geefe, inadvertently alight in the rapids, above the great cataract, they are incapable of getting on the wing again, and are inftantly hurried on to destruction. There is one appearance at this cataract, worthy of fome attention, and which I do not remember to have feen noted by

any writer.

9. Juft below the great pitch, the water and foam may be feen puffed up in fpherical figures nearly as large as common cocks of hay; they burst at the top, and project a column of fpray to a prodigious height; they then fubfide and are fucceeded by others, which burft in like manner. This appearance is most confpicuous about half way between the island that divides the falls, and the weft fide of the ftrait, where the largest column of water defcends.

NARRATIVE OF THE CAPTIVITY OF MRS. JEMIMA HOWE, TAKEN BY THE INDIANS AT HINSDALE, NEW-HAMPSHIRE, JULY 27, 1755.

I.

As Meffrs. Caleb Howe, Hilkiah Grout, and Benja

min Gaffield, who had been hoeing corn in the meadow, west of the river, were returning home a little before fun fet to a place called Bridgman's Fort, they were fired upon by twelve Indians who had ambushed their path. 2. Howe was on horfeback, with two young lads, his children behind him. A ball, which broke his thigh, brought few rods and fell likeThe Indians in their pierced his body with

him to the ground. His horfe ran a wife, and both the lads were taken. favage manner, coming up to Howe, a fpear, tore off his fcalp, ftuck a hatchet in his head, and left him in this forlorn condition.

par

3. He was found alive the morning after, by a party of men from Fort Hinsdale; and being afked by one of the ty whether he knew him, he answered, Yes, I know you all. These were his last words, though he did not expire until after his friends had arrived with him at Fort Hinfdale. Grout was fo fortunate as to escape unhurt.

4. But Gaffeld in attempting to wade through the river, at a certain place which was indeed fordable at that time, was

unfortunately drowned. Flushed with the fuccefs they had met with here, the favages went directly to Bridgman's Fort. There was no man in it, and only three women and fome children, Mrs. Jemima Howe, Mrs. Submit Grout and Mrs, Eunice Gaffield.

5. Their husbands I need not mention again, and their feelings at this juncture I will not attempt to defcribe. They had heard the enemy's guns, but knew not what happened to their friends.

6. Extremely anxious for their fafety, they ftood longing to embrace them, until at length, concluding from the noife they heard without, that fome of them were come, they un barred the gate in a hurry to receive them; when lo! to their inexpreffible difappointment and furprife, inftead of their huf bands, in rushed a number of hideous Indians, to whom they and their tender offsprings became an eafy prey; and from whom they had nothing to expect, but either an immediate death, or a long and doleful captivity.

7. The latter of thefe, by the favor of Providence, turned out to be the lot of thefe unhappy women, and their still more unhappy, because more helpless children. Mrs. Gaffield had but one, Mrs. Grout had three, and Mrs. Howe seven. The eldest of Mrs. Howe's was eleven years old, and the youngest but fix months.

8. The two eldest were daughters, which he had by her first husband, Mr. William Phips, who was alfo flain by the Indians, of which I doubt not you have feen an account in Mr. Doolittle's hiflory. It was from the mouth of this woman that I lately received the foregoing account: She alfo gave me, I doubt not, a true though, to be fure, a very brief and imperfect history of her captivity, which I here infert for your perufal

9. The Indians (fhe fays) having plundered and put fire to the fort, we marched, as near as I could judge, a mile and a half into the woods, where we encamped that night.

10. When the morning came, and we had, advanced as much farther, fix Indians were fent back to the place of our late abode, who collected a little more plunder, and deftroyed fome other effects that had been left behind; but they did not return until the day was fo far fpent, that it was judged beft to continue where they were through the night.

1. Early the next morning, we fet off for Canada, and continued our march eight days fucceflively, until we had reached the place where the Indians had left their canooes, about fifteen miles from Crown Point. This was a long and tedious march; but the captives, by Divine affiftance, were enabled to endure it with lefs trouble and difficulty than they had reafon to expect.

12. From fuch favage mafters, in fuch indigent circumftances, we could not rationally hope for kinder treatment than we received. Some of us, it is true, had a harder lot than others; and, among the children, I thought my fon Squire had the hardest of

any.

13. He was then only four years old, and when we stopped to rest our weary limbs, and he fat down on his master's pack, the favage monfter would often knock him off; and fome times too with the handle of his hatchet. Several ugly marks, indented in his head by the cruel Indians, at that tender age, are still plainly to be feen.

14. At length we arrived at Crown Point and took up our quarters there, for the fpace of near a week. In the mean time fome of the Indians went to Montreal, and took feveral of the weary captives along with them, with a view of felling them to the French. They did not fucceed however, in finding a market for any of them.

15. They gave my youngest daughter to the governor, de Vaudreuil, had a drunken frolic, and returned again to Crown Point, with the rest of their prifoners. From hence we fet off for St. John's, in four or five canooes, juft as night was coming on, and were foon furrounded with darkness.

16. A heavy ftorm hung over us. The found of the rolling thunder was very terrible upon the waters, which at every flafh of expanfive. lightning feemed to be all in a blaze. Yet to this we were indebted for all the light we enjoyed. No object could we difcern any longer than the flashes lafted.

17. In this pofture we failed in our open, tottering canooes, almoft the whole of that dreary night. The morning indeed had not yet begun to dawn, when we all went afhore and having collected a heap of fand and gravel for a pillow, I laid. myself down, with my tender infant by my fide, not knowing where any of my other children were, or what a miferable condition they might be in.

G

[ocr errors]

18. The next day, however, under the wing of that everprefent and all powerful Providence, which had preferved us through the darkness and imminent dangers of the preceding night, we all arrived in fafety at St. John's.

19. Our next movement was to St. Francois, the metropolis, if I may fo call it, to which the Indians who led us captive belonged. Soon after our arrival at that wretched capi. tal, a council, confifting of the chief Sachem and fome prin. cipal warriors of the St. Francois tribe, was convened; and after the ceremonies ufual on fuch occafions were over, I was conducted and delivered to an old fquaw, whom the Indians told me I must call my mother.

20. My infant ftill continued to be the property of its original Indian owners. I was nevertheless permitted to keep it with me a while longer, for the fake of faving them the trouble of looking after it. When the weather began to grow cold, fhuddering at the prospect of approaching winter, I acquainted my new mother, that I did not think it would be poffible for me to endure it, if I must spend it with her, and fare as the Indians did.

21. Liftening to my repeated and earnest folicitations, that I might be difpofed of among fome of the French inhabitants of Canada, he at length set off with me and my infant, attended by fome male Indians upon a journey to Montreal, in hopes of finding a market for me there. But the attempt proved unfuccefsful, and the journey tedious indeed.

22. Our provision was fo fcanty as well as infipid and unfavory; the weather was fo cold, and the travelling so very bad, that it often seemed as if I must have perished on the way.

23. While we were at Montreal, we went into the houfe of a certain French gentleman, whofe lady being fent for, and coming into the room where I was, to examin me, seeing I had an infant, exclaimed with an oath "I will not buy a woman who has a child to look after."

24. There was a fwill-pail standing near me, in which I obferved fome crufts and crumbs of bread swimming on the furface of the greafy liquor it contained. Sorely pinched with hunger, I fkimmed them off with my hands, and ate them; and this was all the refremment which the house afforded me.

25. Somewhere in the course of this vifit to Montreal, my Indian mother was fo unfortunate as to catch the small-pox,

of which distemper fhe died, foon after our return, which was by water to St. Francois. And now came on the feafon when the Indians began to prepare for a winter's hunt.

26. I was ordered to return my poor child to those of them who ftill claimed it as their property. This was a fevere trial. The babe clung to my bofom with all its might; but 1 was obliged to pluck it thence, and deliver it, fhrieking and fcreaming, enough to penetrate a heart of ftone, into the hands of thofe unfeeling wretches, whofe tender mercies may be termed cruel.

27. It was foon carried off by a hunting party of those Indians, to a place called Miflifko, at the lower end of Lake Champlain, whither, in about a month after, it was my fortune to follow them. And here I found it, it is true, but in a condition that afforded me no great fatisfaction; it being greatly emaciated, and almoft ftarved.

28. I took it in my arins, put its face to mine, and it inftantly bit me with fuch violence, that it feemed as if I muft have parted with a piece of my cheek. I was permitted to lodge with it that and the two following nights; but every morning that intervened, the Indians, I fuppofe on purpose to torment me, fent me away to another wigwam, which stood at a little distance, though not fo far from the one in which my diftreffed infant was confined, but that I could plainly hear its inceffant cries, and heart-rending lamentations.

29. In this deplorable condition, I was obliged to take my leave of it on the morning of the third day after my arrival at the place. We moved down the lake feveral miles the fame day; and the night following was remarkable on account of the great earthquake which terribly fhook that howling wildernefs.

30. Among the islands hereabouts, we spent the winter feafon, often fhifting our quarters, and roving about from one place to another; our family corfisting of three perfons only, beside myself, viz. my late mother's daughter, whom there. fore I called my fifter, her fanhop, and a pappoos.

31. They once left me alone two difmal nights; and when they returned to me again, perceiving them fmile at each other, I asked what is the matter? They replied that two of my children were no more. One of which, they faid, died a natural death, and the other was knocked on the head,

« AnteriorContinuar »