Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1855-07-12
EVENING STAR.
SAMUEL BRADY AND coRNpLANrER,
ALEGEND OF THE ALLBeHANY a1yup


A LEGEND OF THE ALLEGHANY RIyER
Many of the wild legends of border strife
and Indian bsrbarity that have been enacted
along the shores Of the Allegheny and Ohio,
| have never been rescued from the dim and ia
| ding remembrances Of past age. But occa-
siOnally a story Of thrilling interest is snatched
from the lingering records of the red man
The story am about to relate received
| from an old Indian pilot of the Allegheny. Is
was many years ago, when that stern old chief
Cornpanter (whose remains now repose in ST.
lence and loneliness on the banks of that beau
| teous river he loved 50 welD was in his glory
His tribe roamed over the dense and unbroken
forests along its banks, fearless, unmolested,
| and free.
His people were hostile to the whites and
never lost any opportunity to lie in ambush
and seize the lonely voyager as he descended
the river, and consign him to the stake and the
| torture. But the watchful, shrewd, and deadly
| foe of Cornplanter and the whole '.tawny race
was the indOmitable and fearless Capt. Samuel
| Brady. This veteran pioneer and Indian hun
| ter was one of those noble specimens of the
hardy foresters who plunged fearlessly into
| the interminable forests that then overspread
| so large portion of the Western States.
Like Daniel Boon, Lewis Wetxel. Simon
Kenton, and others, who made Indian hunting
| pastme, his deadly hate of the Indian, and
| his burning passion for hunting them down,
amounted to a monomania. This hatred was
| In consequence of the wrongs they had inflicted
| on bis family-his father, Captain John Brady,
and his brother having fallen victims to the
| tomahawk and scalping knife.
Ihe scene OF the present story is at place
known to bOatmen and raftsmen as "Brady's
Bend, and where now the noise and hustle of
a new manufacturing town called the ''Great
Western" resounds along the shores that then
echoed only to the whoop Of the savage or the
panther's scream.
1t is bend in the river, Of nine miles in
length, and is sometimes called the ''Nine mile
Bend, and Is scarcely half q mile across the
neck. Here in this bend Cornplanter, return
ed from some successful inroads upon the
whites, had secured several prisoners, by ty-
ing them to as many trees, while his swarthy
| and hideCusly painted followers were busy in
making preparations for the faggot and the
torture.
The stake was erected and the faggOts pre-
pared with ali the GOODNESS and refinement of
Indian barbarity. 1t was a beautiful even
ing; the sun was just sinking behind the lofty
hill upon the opposite shore. Calmness had
thrown its oily wand upon the Alleghany's
crystal tide, and it slept The full, round,
| moon. just bursting through the tree tops be-
| hind them sailed calmly through the distant
| blue, and cast its mellow beams upon the
| sleeping river, and danced upon its placid bo-
SON..
The melancholy note of the whip-poor-
from the ad joining thicket fell sweetly upon the
ear. The victims were unbound and led forth
| to the place of torture. At this moment a
voice, high up among the trowning rocks that
| loomed cut from the thick hemlocks that
crowned the hill opposite, hailed Cornplanter
| in the Indian tongue, informing him tha: " he
| was an Indian warrior, just returned from the
war path with goOdiy lumber of prisoners
lie desired that the ceremonies of the tor
| ture might be suspended until he could ford
| the river and join them, when they would eel
ebrate the occasion with unusual demons;ra-
tloIs OF savage rejoicings. To this Complain
ter consented The flames that had been kind
led were eItinguisbed, and the prisoners again
bound to the trees
In the meantime, Brady, for 1t was he who
had deceived the wild Indian, with a BODY of
men moved silently up the river to a place
known as - Truby's Ripple" and there ford
ing the river, drew his men up across the neck
of the bend, and moved noiseiessly down upon
the savages. SO cautious was his approach
| that the Indians were completely cut OF from
| retreat before they became alarmed
Bradys men hemned them in from behind,
while the Allegheny rolled in front The first
intimation to the savages of his approach was
communicated by deadly discharge from his
unerring rifles. The Indians fought with des-
paration, but were overpowered; all were killed
who finding himself Alone plunged into the
ryer, and swan for the other shore
Being good swimmer, he remained several
minutes under water, but as he rose for breath,
he was greeted with shower of bullets In
this way, alternately swimming under watcr
as long as he could hold his breath, and then
rising to the surface, he escaped unhurt, and
reaching the other shore in safety, secreted
himself behind a large standing rock
lle prisoners were OF course unhOuOd and
all joined in the Publications and joy at the
timely and unlocked for release. The rock
that shielded COrnplanter from Brady's bull
lets was pointed out to me by the old Indian,
In recent trip down this river. 1t is known
rs " Cornplanter's Rock" The old Indian
gave me the story with a sad and detected
countenance, in broken English.
"Alas! what change! Where then the
sheeny tide of the beauteous Allegheny parted
only to the swift-skimming birchen canoe and
echoed to the wild voices that came out of the
dense, dark forest, now is heard the shrill
whistle of the steam-pipe and the rushing of
the mighty steamer. Where the tawny saw
age then reclined upon the shady banks from
his pursuit of the deer, the panther, and the
bear, or rested from the war-path is now the |
scene Of life and activity.
The tall old forest has receded from before |
the advance of civilization, and given place
to farms, beautiful villas and bustling towns. |
The Indian, too, has passed away; but a few.
and they but miserably decaying relics of |
what they once were, are now occasionally |
seen, the descendants of the proud race that
once could call these hills, and groves, and |
rivers all their own. Alas in the language |
of the poet
" Chieftains and their tribes have perished,
Like the thickets where they grew"