The native American., 1838-09-22
TIL E G APTIV BOY.
A STORY OF THE PRAIRIEs.

THE CAPTIVE BOY.
A STORY OF THE PRAIRIEs.
All who are conversant with the early history
of our country, will recoect that frontier set
Elements were, many years ago, before the power
of the aborigines broken and subdued, fire.
quently laid waste and desoate by the incursons
of the Indians, who, not content with pillaging
and destroying whatever property came in their
way, marked their footsteps with Blood and made
captives of all whom glutted vengeance or ca
price induced them to spare.
1t happened in one of these incursions, that a
young man named Bird, with his wife and child,
an infant about six months old, were made pri-
soncrs. The quantity Of plumber in possession
Of the savages making the assistance of the un-
fortunate father and mother necessary, their lives
were spared for the especial purpose of assisting
in carrying it of; they were shown their burdens
and directed to follow. The mother, knowing
the fate which, in these circumstances, awaited
her infant, should it be discovered, contrived to
conceal it from her inhuman captors; and having
wrapped it up in her burden, close to her breast,
iourneyed by the side of her husband towards the
wilderness; sorrowing, no doubt, but invoking the
aid Of Him whose Almighty arm can succor the
most unfortunate, and deliver in the greatest pc
| rl.
After travelling from sunrise until late at night
through long summers day, the party arrived
at an Indian village, and the captves being Sc
cured. the Indians threw themselves on the
ground, and were soon asleep; but it may well be
supposed that Bird and his wife, even after so
much fatigue, felt little disposition to close their
eyes. How they might escape alone occupied
their thoughts; they matured their plan and put
it into execution; but to escape recapture required
more vigilance and resolution than it required in
genuity and strength to free themselves from the
cords that bound them.
\ They, however, set out, and with their help.
less babe, which, as by miracle, they had still
succeeded in preserving unnoticed, began at mid.
might 10 retrace their steps; but before daylight
fatigue, anxiety and want of nourishment so com.
pletely exhausted them, that they found this di-
lemma placed before them: the child must be left
in the wilderness, or they must remain and perish
with it. The morning was already streakng the
east with gray, and they knew that their flight
must have already been discovered; they knew,
too, the characters they had to deal with, and to
:. escape there was not moment to be lost. Dis
tracted with opposing resolutions, sense of duty
prevailed over parental fondness; the mother for
the last time pressed her innocent offspring to
| her breast, bedewed its unconsciolsly smiling
cheek with tears, and sat it down on the green
bank of little tinkling rll to perish. where, as
she cast lingering look, after she had left it, she
saw it scrambng after the flowers that grew
around.
The father and mother eacaped to the settle
ments and Mr. Bird speedily collected large
party of his neighbors, and returned to the spot
where the child had been left, but it was gone;
and in the lapse of years, blessed with riches and
a numerous progeny, the parents ceased to weep
for their lost boy.
Fifteen summers had smiled upon the harvess,
when in a treaty with distant tribe of Indians,
an article of which bound them to deliver up any
captives that might be in their possession, boy
was put into the charge of the commissioners on
the part OF the whites, with the declaration that
he white, found in infancy upon the very
spot where the child of Bird had been left. He
was sent to his parents, who Immediately recog-
Missed him by remarkable scar on his right hand
which he had received in his fathers house.
4 The measure Of his parents Joy was full, but
the boy wandered through the rich possessions OF
his father without smile. His bow and his
blanket were his only joy. He despised alike
the dress, the habits, and the luxuries that were
proAered him; and his mind constantly. brooded
over the forest scenes and sports in which he hat
passed his boyhood. Vain were all the attempts
the efforts to obliterate the recollectons of his
adopted home from his mind. While persuasion
and indulgence were alone resorted to, he modest
y ressted; but when force was tried, and he was
compelled to charge his blanket for the garment:
of civilized life, and his favoritc bow for book
he grew sullcn and dscontcned, and at last wa.
missing from his fathers house, and seen, the same
evening, arrayed in the Indian garb, crossing
t distant mountain, and bending his course towards
the setting sun.