The Perrysburg journal. [volume] (Perrysburg, Ohio) 1853-1861, 1854-03-13
The Two Spies,

and stockade above the mouth of the Hook
ing river was a frontier post for the hardy
pioneers of the Northwestern Territory
There Nature was in her undisturbed livery
of dark and thick forests, interspersed with
green and Towering prairies. Then the for
est had not heard the sound of the wood
mans axe, nor the plough of the husband
man opened the bosom of the earth. Then
those beautiful prairies waved their golden
plumes to the God of nature; and among the
most luxuriant of these were those that lay
along the Hockhocking valley, and especial
~ that portion of it on which the town Of
Lancaster now stands.
Here the tribes of the north and west met
TO counsel, and from this spot led forth the
war-path in different directions. Upon one
Of these occasions when the war spirit
moved nightly among the sons of nature,
and the tomahawk leaped from its scabbard,
and the spirits of their friends who had died
in the field of battle visited the warrior in
his night visions and called loudly for re-
Venge 1t was asCertalned at the garrison
above the mouth of the Hockhocking river,
that the Indians were gathering in great
numbers for the purpose of striking blow on
some of the frontiers. To meet this crisis
two of the most skilled and indefatgable
spies were despatched to watch their move
ments and report
McCleland and White, two spirits that
never quailed at danger, and as unconquera-
BILE as the Lybian lion, in the month of Octo-
Der and on one of the balmy DAYS of IN
dian summer took leave of their fellows and
moved on through the thick plum and hazel
bushes. with the noseless tread Of panthers
armed wi h their unerring and trusty rifles
+boi Chi tho
prairies. till they reached that most remark
able prominence now known by the name
of Mount Pleasant, the western termination
of which is a perpendicular cliff of rocks
of some hundreds of feet high, and whose
summit, from western view, towers to the
clouds and overlooks the vast plains below
When this point was gained our hardy spies
had position from which they could see
every movement Of the Indians below III the
valley.
Every day added a new accession of war
riors to the company They witnessed their
exercises of horse-racing, running foot-races,
Jumping, throwing the tOmahawk, and dan
cling the old sachems looking on with their
Indian Indifference, the sQuaws engaged in
their usual drudgery and the children en-
gagged in their playful gambols The arrival
Of a new warrior was greeted with terrible
shouts, which, striking the mural face of
Mount Pleasant, were driven back in the
various indentations Of the surrounding
hills, producing reverberations and echoes as
if ten thousand fiends We're gathered at a
universal levee Such yells would have
struck terror to the hearts of those unaccus-
toned to Indian revelry.
To our spies this was but martial music
strains which walked their watchfulness, and
newly strung their veteran courage. From
their early youth they had always been on
the frontier, and were we'll practiced in all
the subtlety, craft, and cunning of Indian
warfare, as we'll as the ferocity and blood
thirsty nature Of these savage warriors. -
They were, therefore, not likely to be en-
shared by their cunning, nor. without des-
perate conflict, to fall victims to their scalp
ing-knives or tomahawks. On several oc-
casions small parties left the prairie and as
cended the mount from the eastern side. On
these occasions the spies would hide in
the deep fissures of the rocks on the west,
and leave their hiding places when their un-
invited and unwelcome visitors had disap-
peared,
For food, they depended on jerked venison
and corn bread, with which their knapsacks
were well stored. They dared not kindle a