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off their stragglers, and even when the alarm was given and pursuit commenced, they fled with a swiftness, that the speed of cavalry could not overtake, into rocksand fastnesses, whither it was dangerous to follow them. In order to limit as far as possible this species of war, in which there was so much loss and so little honour, it was the custom with every regiment to extend its outposts to a great distance beyond the encamp ments, to station sentinels some miles in the woods, and to keep a constant guard round the main body.

Its

A regiment of foot was at this time stationed upon the confines of a boundless savannah. Its particular office was to guard every avenue of approach to the main body; the sentinels whose posts penetrated into the woods were supplied from its ranks, and the service of this regiment was thus more hazardous than that of any other. loss was likewise great. The sentinels were perpetually surprised upon their posts by the Indians, and were borne off their stations without communicating any alarm or being heard of after. Not a trace was left of the manner in which they had been conveyed away, except that, upon one or two occasions, a few drops of blood had appeared upon the leaves which covered the ground. Many imputed this unaccountable disappearance to treachery, and suggested as an unanswerable argument, that the

men thus surprised might at least have fired their muskets and communicated the alarm to the contiguous posts. Others, who could not be brought to rank it as treachery, were content to consider it as a mystery, which time would unravel.

One morning, the sentinels having been stationed as usual over night, the guard went at sunrise to relieve a post which extended a considerable distance into the wood. The sentinel was gone! The surprise was great; but the circumstance had occurred before. They left another man, and departed, wishing him better luck. 'You need not be afraid,' said the man with warmth; 'I shall not desert.' The relief company returned to the guard-house. The sentinels were replaced every four hours, and at the appointed time the guard again marched to relieve the post. To their inexpressible astonishment, the man was gone! They searched round the spot, but no traces could be found of his disappearance. It was now necessary that the station, from a stronger motive than ever, should not remain unoccupied; they were compelled to leave another man, and returned to the guard-house. The superstition of the soldiers was awakened, and terror ran through the regiment. The colonel being apprised of the occurrence, signified his intention to accompany the guard when they relieved the sentinel they had left. At the appointed time, they all

marched together; and again, to their unutterable wonder, they found the post vacant and the man gone!

Under these circumstances, the colonel hesitated whether he should station a whole company on the spot, or whether he should again submit the post to a single sentinel. The cause of this repeated disappearance of men, whose courage and honesty were never suspected, must be discovered; and it seemed not likely that this discovery could be obtained by persisting in the old method. Three brave men were now lost to the regiment, and to assign the post to a fourth seemed nothing less than giving him up to destruction. The poor fellow whose turn it was to take the station, though a man in other respects of incomparable resolution, trembled from head to foot.

'I must do my duty,' said he to the officer: 'I know that; but I should like to lose my life with more credit.' 'I will leave no man,' said the colonel, 'against his will.' A man immediately stepped from the ranks, and desired to take the post. Every mouth commended his resolution. 'I will not be taken alive,' said he, and you shall hear of me on the least alarm. At all events, I will fire my piece if I hear the least noise. If a bird chatters or a leaf falls, you shall hear my musket. You may be alarmed when nothing is the matter; but you must take the chance as the condition of the

discovery.' The colonel applauded his courage, and told him he would be right to fire upon the least noise which was ambiguous. His comrades shook hands with him, and left him with a melancholy foreboding. The company marched back, and awaited the event in the guard-house.

As

An hour had elapsed, and every ear was upon the rack for the discharge of the musket, when, upon a sudden, the report was heard. The guard immediately marched, accompanied, as before, by the colonel and some of the most experienced officers of the regiment. they approached the post, they saw the man advancing towards them, dragging another man on the ground by the hair of his head. When they came up with him, he appeared to be an Indian, whom he had shot. An explanation was immediately required.

'I told your honour,' said the man, 'that I should fire if I heard the least noise. The resolution I had taken has saved my life. I had not been long on my post when I heard a rustling at some short distance; I looked, and saw an American hog, such as are common in the woods, crawling along the ground, and seemingly looking for nuts under the trees and amongst the leaves. As these animals are so very common, I ceased to consider it for some minutes; but being on the constant alarm and expectation of attack, and scarcely knowing what was to be con

spection. He was armed with a dagger and a tomahawk.'

Such was the substance of this man's relation. The cause of the disappearance of the other sentinels was now apparent. The Indians, sheltered in this disguise, secreted themselves in the coppice, watched the moment when they could throw it off, burst upon the sentinels without previous alarm, and, too quick to give them an opportunity to discharge their pieces, either stabbed or scalped them, and bearing their bodies away, concealed them at some distance in the leaves. The Americans gave them rewards for every scalp of an enemy which they brought.

sidered a real cause of apprehension, I kept my eyes vigilantly fixed upon it, and marked its progress among the trees: still there was no need to give the alarm, and my thoughts were directed to danger from another quarter. It struck me, however, as somewhat singular to see this animal making, by a circuitous passage, for a thick coppice immediately behind my post. I therefore kept my eye more constantly fixed upon it, and as it was now within a few yards of the coppice, hesitated whether I should not fire. My comrades, thought I, will laugh at me for alarming them by shooting a pig! I had almost resolved to let it alone, when, just as it approached the thicket, I thought I observed it give an unusual spring. I no longer hesitated; I took my aim; discharged my piece; and the animal was instantly stretched before me, with a groan which I conceived to be that of a human creature. I went up to it, and judge my astonishment when I found I had killed an Indian !ment of the rifle had been fully He had enveloped himself with displayed. On retiring to the the skin of one of these wild room appropriated to that rehogs so artfully and completely, markable individual and myself his hands and feet were so en- for the night, I felt anxious to tirely concealed in it, and his know more of his exploits and gait and appearance were so adventures than I did, and acexactly correspondent to that cordingly took the liberty of of the animal, that imperfectly proposing numerous questions as they were always seen through to him. The stature and general the trees and jungles, the dis- appearance of this wanderer of guise could not be penetrated the western forests approached at a distance, and scarcely dis- the gigantic. His chest was covered upon the nearest in- broad and prominent; his mus

COLONEL BOONE'S ESCAPE.

'Colonel Boone happened to spend a night with me under the same roof, more than twenty years ago. We had returned from a shooting excursion, in the course of which his extraordinary skill in the manage

cular powers displayed themselves in every limb; his countenance gave indication of his great courage, enterprise, and perseverance; and when he spoke, the very motion of his lips brought the impression that whatever he uttered could not be otherwise than strictly true. I undressed, while he merely took off his hunting-shirt, and arranged a few folds of blankets on the floor, choosing rather to lie there, as he observed, than on the softest bed. When we had both disposed of ourselves, each after his own fashion, he related to me the following account of his escape on one occasion from the Indians:

number of hands, and was immediately pinioned, as if about to be led to the scaffold for execution. To have attempted to be refractory would have proved useless and dangerous to my life; and I suffered myself to be removed from my camp to theirs, a few miles distant, without uttering a word of complaint. You are aware, I dare say, that to act in this manner was the best policy, as you understand that by so doing I proved to the Indians at once that I was born and bred as fearless of death as any of themselves. When we reached the camp, great rejoicings were exhibited. Two squaws and a few papooses appeared particularly delighted at the sight of me, and I was assured by very unequivocal gestures and words, that on the morrow the mortal enemy of the red-skin would cease to live. I never opened my lips, but was busy contriving some scheme which might en

"I was once," said he, "on a hunting expedition on the banks of the Green River, when the lower parts of this state (Kentucky) were still in the hands of nature, and none but the sons of the soil were looked upon as its lawful proprietors. We Virginians had for some time been waging a war of intrusionable upon them, and I, amongst the rest, rambled through the woods in pursuit of their race, as I now would follow the tracks of any ravenous animal. The Indians outwitted me one dark night, and I was as unexpectedly as suddenly made a prisoner by them. The trick had been managed with great skill; for no sooner had I extinguished the fire of my camp, and laid me down to rest in full security, as I thought, than I felt myself seized by an indistinguishable

me to give the rascals the slip before dawn. The women immediately fell a searching about my hunting-shirt for whatever they might think valuable, and fortunately for me, soon found my flask filled with monongahela (i.e. strong whisky). A terrific grin was exhibited on their murderous countenances, while my heart throbbed with joy at the anticipation of their intoxication. The crew immediately began to beat their bellies and sing, as they passed the bottle from mouth to mouth.

How often did I wish the flask ten times its size, and filled with aquafortis! I observed that the squaws drank more freely than the warriors, and again my spirits were about to be depressed, when the report of a gun was heard at a distance. The Indians all jumped on their feet, the singing and drinking were both brought to a stand, and I saw with inexpressible joy the men walk off to some distance and talk to the squaws. I knew that they were consulting about me, and I foresaw that in a few moments the warriors would go to discover the cause of the gun having been fired so near their camp. I expected that the squaws would be left to guard me. Well, sir, it was just so. They returned; the men took up their guns and walked away. The squaws sat down again, and in less than five minutes had my bottle up to their dirty mouths, gurgling down their throats the remains of the whisky. With what pleasure did I see them becoming more and more drunk, until the liquor took such hold on them, that it was quite impossible for these women to be of any service. They tumbled down, rolled about, and began to snore; when I, having no other chance of freeing myself from the cords that fastened me, rolled over and over towards the fire, and after a short time, burned them asunder. I rose on my feet, stretched my stiffened sinews, snatched up my

rifle, and, for once in my life, spared that of Indians. I now recollect how desirous I once felt to lay open the skulls of the wretches with my tomahawk; but when I again thought upon killing beings unprepared and unable to defend themselves, it looked like murder without need, and I gave up the idea. But, sir, I felt determined to mark the spot, and walking to a thrifty ash sapling, I cut out of it three large chips, and ran off. I soon reached the river, crossed it, and threw myself deep into the cane brakes, imitating the tracks of an Indian with my feet, so that no chance might be left for those from whom I had escaped to overtake

me."

HARROD'S WOLF-SKIN CAP.

The Shawanees had made several attacks upon Boone's station, against which settlement they had always expressed the bitterest animosity, on account, no doubt, of its having been the first white settlement held in the country. Boone was absent at the Licks, with a great part of the men of the station, making salt. The prowling parties of Indians had killed their cattle, driven in their hunting-parties, and so shortened their supplies of meat, that the garrison was reduced to great straits. At this juncture, a stalwart hunter, James Harrod, the founder of Harrodsburg, made his unexpected appearance, on his return

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