Elsie's Journey on Inland Waters, Page 3

  CHAPTER III.

  "The procession, escorted by the five hundred Pottawatomies, movedslowly along the lake shore in a southerly direction till they hadreached the Sand Hills between the prairie and the beach. There theIndians filed to the right, so that the hills were between them and thewhite people.

  "Wells and his mounted Miamis, who were in the advance, came suddenlydashing back, their leader shouting, 'They are about to attack us: forminstantly!'

  "The words had scarcely left his lips when a storm of bullets came fromthe Sand Hills. The Pottawatomies, both treacherous and cowardly, hadmade of those hills a covert from which to attack the little band ofwhites.

  "The troops were hastily brought into line, charged up the hill, andone of their number, a white-haired man of seventy, fell dead from hishorse, the first victim of the perfidy of the Indians hounded on by theinhuman Proctor, a worse savage than they.

  "The Miamis proved cowardly and fled at the first onset. Theirchief rode up to the Pottawatomies, charged them with perfidy, andbrandishing his tomahawk told them he would be the first to leadAmericans to punish them; then, wheeling his horse, he dashed away overthe prairie, following his fleeing companions.

  "Both men and women among the whites fought bravely for their lives;they could not hope to save them, but they would sell them to thesavage foe as dearly as possible. It was a short, desperate, bloodyconflict. Lossing tells us that Captain Wells displayed the greatestcoolness and gallantry. At the beginning of the fight he was closebeside his niece, Mrs. Heald.

  "'We have not the slightest chance for life,' he said to her. 'We mustpart to meet no more in this world; God bless you!' and with that hedashed forward into the midst of the fight. Seeing a young warrior,painted like a demon, climb into a wagon in which were twelve children,and scalp them all, he forgot his own danger, and burning to avenge thedreadful deed, cried out, 'If butchering women and children is theirgame, I'll kill too!' at the same time dashing toward the Indian campwhere they had left their squaws and papooses.

  "Instantly swift-footed young warriors were in hot pursuit, firingupon him as they ran, while he, lying close to his horse's neck,occasionally turned and fired upon them. He had got almost beyond therange of their rifles when a shot killed his horse and wounded himseverely in the leg.

  "Yelling like fiends the young savages rushed forward to make himprisoner, intending, as he well knew, not to kill him at once, but toreserve him for a lingering and painful death by slow torture. TwoIndian friends of his--Win-ne-meg and Wau-ban-see--tried to save him,but in vain; and he, knowing well for what fate he would be reserved iftaken alive, taunted his pursuers with the most insulting epithets, toprovoke them to kill him instantly.

  "He succeeded at last by calling one of them, Per-so-tum by name, asquaw, which so enraged him that he despatched Wells at once with atomahawk, jumped upon his body, tore out his heart, and ate a portionof it with savage delight."

  "Oh, how awful!" cried Grace, shuddering with horror. "How his niecemust have felt when she saw it!"

  "Very possibly she did not see it," said Grandma Elsie, "so busy asshe must have been in defending herself. She was an expert with therifle and as an equestrienne, defended herself bravely, and receivedsevere wounds; but, though faint and bleeding, managed to keep thesaddle. An Indian raised his tomahawk over her and she looked himfull in the face, saying, with a melancholy smile, 'Surely you wouldnot kill a squaw!' At that his arm fell, but he took the horse by thebridle and led it toward the camp with her still in the saddle. It wasa fine animal, and the Indians had been firing at her in order to getpossession of it, till she had received seven bullets in her person.Her captor had spared her for the moment, but as he drew near thecamp, his covetousness so overcame his better impulses that he tookher bonnet from her head and was about to scalp her when Mrs. Kinzie,sitting in her boat, whence she had heard the sounds of the conflictbut could not see the combatants, caught sight of them and cried out toone of her husband's clerks who was standing on the beach, 'Run, run,Chandonnai! That is Mrs. Heald. He is going to kill her. Take that muleand offer it as a ransom.'

  "Chandonnai made haste to obey the order, offered the mule and twobottles of whisky in addition, and as the three amounted to more valuethan Proctor's offered bounty for a scalp, he succeeded, and Mrs.Heald was placed in the boat and there hidden from the eyes of otherscalp-hunters."

  "I think you were right, Grandma Elsie, in calling that Proctor a worsesavage than those Indians! bribing them as he did to murder men, women,and children!" exclaimed Lucilla, her eyes flashing with indignation.

  "Is it quite certain that he did?" asked Grace.

  "Quite," replied Grandma Elsie. "Lossing tells us that Proctor hadoffered a liberal sum for scalps, and that in consequence nearly allthe wounded men were killed, their scalps carried to him at Malden,and such a bounty paid for them as is given for the destruction of somany wolves. In a footnote Lossing gives an extract from Niles' _WeeklyRegister_ of April 3, 1813, in which it is stated that Mrs. Helm hadarrived in Buffalo, and in the narrative she gave of her sufferings atand after the massacre at Chicago said, 'Colonel Proctor, the Britishcommander at Malden, bought the scalps of our murdered garrison atChicago,' and thanks to her noble spirit, she boldly charged him withthe infamy in his own house."

  "Did he deny it?" asked Evelyn.

  "We are not told that he did; but no doubt he was angered, for heafterward treated both her and her husband with great cruelty, causingthem to be arrested and sent across the wilderness from Detroit toNiagara frontier, in the dead of a Canadian winter. The writer alsostated that Mrs. Heald had learned from the tribe with whom she was aprisoner, and who were the perpetrators of those murders, that theyintended to remain true, but received orders from the British to cutoff our garrison whom they were to escort.

  "In our wars with England many British officers have shown themselvesextremely cruel,--not a whit behind the savages in that respect,--butit would be very wrong to judge of the whole nation by their conduct;for there were in the mother country many who felt kindly towardAmerica and the Americans. And I think," she added, with her own sweetsmile, "that there are many more now."

  "It seems Mrs. Helm too escaped with her life," said Walter; "but shewas wounded, I presume, mother, since you just spoke of her sufferingsboth at and after the massacre."

  "Yes, a stalwart young Indian attempted to scalp her; she sprang toone side, and the blow from his tomahawk fell on her shoulder insteadof her head; at the same instant she seized him around the neck andattempted to take his scalping-knife, which hung in a sheath on hisbreast. Before the struggle was ended another Indian seized her,dragged her to the margin of the lake, plunged her in, and to herastonishment held her there in a way to enable her to breathe; so thatshe did not drown. Presently she discovered that he was the friendlyBlack Partridge, and that he was engaged in saving instead of trying todestroy her life.

  "The wife of a soldier named Corbord fought desperately, sufferingherself to be cut to pieces rather than surrender; believing that, iftaken prisoner, she would be reserved for torture. The wife of SergeantHolt was another brave woman. At the beginning of the engagement herhusband was badly wounded in the neck, and taking his sword she foughtlike an Amazon. She rode a fine, spirited horse, which the Indianscoveted, and several of them attacked her with the butts of their guns,trying to dismount her, but she used her sword with such skill thatshe foiled them; then suddenly wheeling her horse, she dashed overthe prairie, a number of them in hot pursuit and shouting, 'The bravewoman! the brave woman! don't hurt her!'"

  "Did they overtake her?" asked Grace.

  "Yes, at length; when a powerful savage seized her by the neck anddragged her backward to the ground while several others engaged her infront."

  "Oh, I hope they didn't kill her!" exclaimed Grace.

  "No," replied Mrs. Travilla; "she was afterward ransomed. But to go onwith my story. Presently the firing ceased; the little band of whiteswho had escaped death succeeded in
breaking through the ranks of theassassins--who gave way in front--and rallied on the flank, and gaineda slight eminence on the prairie near a grove called the Oak Woods. TheIndians gathered upon the Sand Hills and gave signs of a willingness toparley. Two-thirds of the whites had been killed or wounded; only 28strong men remained to cope with the fury of nearly 500 savages--theyhad lost but 15 in the conflict. To prolong the contest would be littlebetter than madness. Captain Heald, accompanied only by a half-breedboy in Mr. Kinzie's service, went forward and met Black-Bird on theopen prairie to arrange terms of surrender.

  "It was agreed that all the whites who had survived the conflict shouldbecome prisoners of war, to be exchanged as soon as practicable. Withthis understanding captors and captives all started for the Indian campnear the fort. On arriving there another terrible scene ensued. TheIndians did not consider the wounded to be included in the terms ofsurrender, and immediately proceeded to kill and scalp nearly all ofthem."

  "To gain the bounty offered by that--human, or inhuman fiend Proctor!"exclaimed Walter. "I wonder how he viewed that transaction when he cameto die."

  "I am sure that in the sight of God he was a wholesale murderer," saidRosie; "a murderer not of men only, but of innocent women and childrenalso."

  "Yes," said her mother, "there were twelve children killed, besidesCaptain Wells, Surgeon Van Voorhees, Ensign Ronan, and twenty-sixprivate soldiers.

  "Toward evening the family of Mr. Kinzie were permitted to return totheir own home, where they found the friendly Black Partridge waitingfor them. Mrs. Helm, the daughter of Mrs. Kinzie, you will rememberwas his prisoner. He placed her in the house of a Frenchman namedOuilmette. But the Kinzies and all the prisoners were in great dangerfrom a freshly arrived band of Pottawatomies from the Wabash, who werethirsting for blood and plunder. They thoroughly searched Mr. Kinzie'shouse for victims; but some friendly Indians arrived just in time toprevent the carrying out of their bloodthirsty intentions. These wereled by a half-breed chief called Billy Caldwell. Black Partridge toldhim of the evident purpose of the Wabash Indians, who had blackenedtheir faces and were sitting sullenly in Mr. Kinzie's parlor, no doubtintending presently to start out and engage in the savage work theyhad planned. Billy went in and said in a careless way, as he took offhis accoutrements: 'How now, my friends! A good-day to you! I was toldthere were enemies here, but I am glad to find only friends. Why haveyou blackened your faces? Is it that you are mourning for your friendslost in battle? Or is it that you are fasting? If so, ask our friendhere (indicating Mr. Kinzie) and he will give you to eat. He is theIndians' friend, and never yet refused them what they had need of.'

  "Hearing all this the Wabash Indians were ashamed to own what theirintention had been, and so the threatened massacre did not take place.The prisoners were divided among the captors and finally reunited orrestored to their friends and families."

  "But they must have had a great deal to endure before that happyconsummation," sighed Evelyn. "Oh, I think we can never be thankfulenough that we live in these better times!"

  "So do I," said Grace. "How very dreadful it must be to fall into thehands of savages and meet with a death so awful and sudden! I wish Iknew that they were all Christians and ready for heaven."

  "I can echo that wish," said Grandma Elsie, in tones full of sadness;"but I very much fear that they were not. Some we may hope were, but itis said, on what seems good authority, that Mrs. Helm, in telling ofthat terrible scene near the Sand Hills, spoke of the terror of Dr. VanVoorhees. He had been wounded badly, and his horse shot under him, whenhe asked her, 'Do you think they will take our lives?' and then spokeof offering a large ransom for his. She advised him not to think ofthat, but of inevitable death. 'Oh, I cannot die! I am not fit to die!'he exclaimed. 'If I had only a short time to prepare for it--death isawful!'"

  "'Look at that man! at least he dies like a soldier,' she said,pointing to Ensign Ronan. 'Yes,' gasped the doctor, 'but he has noterror of the future--he is an unbeliever.'

  "Just then Mrs. Helm's struggle with the young Indian who attempted totomahawk her began, and directly afterward she saw the dead body of VanVoorhees."

  "Oh, poor, poor fellow!" exclaimed Grace, tears starting to her eyes."One would think that, in such circumstances as theirs had been formonths, every man and woman would have been careful to make sure workfor eternity."

  "Yes, but Satan is ever tempting men to delay, and perhaps more soulsare, in Christian lands, lost through procrastination than from anyother cause," sighed Grandma Elsie. "'Now is the accepted time; now isthe day of salvation.'"

  There was a moment of silence, broken by Evelyn.

  "I remember when I was a very little girl, papa used to talk to meabout being a Christian, and that once I answered him, 'I would, papa,if I only knew how,' and he said, 'It is very simple, daughter; justto believe in the Lord Jesus, take him for your Saviour, and giveyourself to him--soul and body, time, talents, influence--all thatyou have or ever shall have, to be his forever, trusting in him withall your heart, sure that he meant all that he said in speaking toNicodemus--'God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlastinglife.' And that other, 'Him that cometh to me I will in no wise castout.' Those two texts seem to me to make the way very simple and plain."

  "They do indeed," said Grandma Elsie, "and anyone who has the Bibleand will study it faithfully, with earnest prayer to God for help tounderstand and obey its teachings, can hardly fail to find the way."