The Wilmingtonian, and Delaware register. (Wilmington, Del.) 1824-1825, 1825-03-24
FEM ALE HERO1SM.


The female character, when life passes
smooth and tranquil, appears to be wholly
made up of tenderness and dependence. 1t
shrinks from the gaze ofthe rude, and recoils
from the slightest touch of the impudent.
But however it may appear in these cir
cumstances, certain it is, that when dangers
impend, traits of heroism and intrepidity dart
out amid this tenderness and dependence,
like lightning from the soft fleecy clouds OF
a summers evening. So when we stand by
the oceans side, and view its smooth and
tranquil bosom, we little suspect the terri
Bile energy of it's waves when lashed into flu
nv by the winds. The following facts CON
firms these remarks In the year 1850, Hen
ry and Emily new married pair, and the
children of wealthy parents in Boston, left
their paternal abode determined to effect
permanent settlement at place called D.,
Mass-Emily had been brought up in the
midst of atHuence, and was acquainted with
distress and poverty only in the abstract.
| Though her character was made up of all
these qualities which we most admire in her
sex, yet no one would have suspected the
presence of those which her subsequent life
so abundantly evinced. After the lapse of
five years, their house and farm presented
the appearance of neatness and comfort; and
except being sometimes startled from the
slumbcrs of midnight, by the yell of the saw
age, or the howl of the wolf, they had them
selves suffered no molestation. The pros
pect from the house was bounded on all sides
by forests, except i'll one direction, where
there was deep valley, from which the
wood had been cleared to open communi-
cation with an adjoining town-The rays of
the setting sun, shooting almost horizontally
into this valley, enabled the eye to reach to
4 i IL
trast to the deep gloom that bounded both
sides of the way. 1t was through this o.
pening that Henry might be freque~tly
seen at the close of day returning from labor
in distant field. 1t was here too that the
eve of affection and hope first caught a view
of its beloved object,
One evening about the end of June, Hen
ry was seen about half way up the valley on
his way home. At this instant tall stout
Indian leaped from the adjoining wood
seized upon the unprotected and unsuspi-
cious Henry, and appeared to be in the act
of taking his scalp. The forest around rung
with savage yells, and four Indians were
seen bounding over the fields towards the
house. In anIinstant the tender and depend
ent Emily was TRANSFORMS ed into the bold
tho heroine She deliberately fastened the
doors-removed her two sleeping children
into the celler-and with her husbands ri
Ile stationed herself before the window, fac
ing the Indians. The foremost Indian had
just then disappeared behind a small hillock !;
but as he rose to view he fell in the gasp of
death. She hastily reloaded, and anxiousy
waited the approach of the three remaining
/ Indians, who appeared to be exhausted by
running. Two of them met with fate sim
liar to that of their companion; but the third
succeeded in reaching the door, and commen-
ced cutting it down with his Ratchet. Our
heroine with admirable presence Of mind,
recollecting that she had kettle of beling
water above stairs, took it and poured it
down on this son of the forest; who, that in
slant looking up, received the whole con-
tents, hot as they were into his face and eyes.
Blinded and scalded by the water, and rem
dered desperate by being thus out witted by
a woman, (Which of all things savage most
abhors) he ran furiousiy around the corner
of the house and stumbled into a deep we'll
Freed from immediate personal injury.
she became deeply anxious to know the fate
of her husband. On looking towards the spot
where he had been first seized upon by the
Indian, she beheld him not only alive, but
struggling with fearful odds against his
foe, both covered with blood. She immedi-
ately FASTENED to his relief; and unperceiv-
ed, deliberately despatched ball through
the head of his adversary. On the discharge
of her gun both fell; the one in commissions Of
death, the other by exhaustion; the one was
, restored to his mother earth; the other tc
the arms of an af1ectionate and truly heroic
| mifa