The south-western. [volume] (Shreveport, La.) 1852-1870, 1855-10-17
4 Tale Of western chivalry.

w VanuOttH crossed Tine OHiU " teW miles dDOSt
Wheeling, land committed great depredations
upon the i outhern shore, killing an old man and
spreading Terror throughout the neighborhood
Within lew hours after their retreat, eight
men assembled from different parts of the
small sediment. and pursued the enemy with
great expedition. Among the most active and
efficient OF the party were two brothers, Adam
and Andr|w Poe, Adam was particularly popu-
| lar In Strength action and hardihood, he had
no equal. being finely formed and Injured to all
| the perils bf the woods.
"They had not followed the trail far, before
| they became satisfied that the depredators were
conducted by Big Foot, renowned chief o!
| the w yanaott tribe, who derived his name from
| the immeIse size Of his feet. His height con
siderably Exceeded six feet, and his strength
was reprelcnted as Herculean. He had also
| five brothIrs, but little inferior to himself in
size and cburags, and as they generally went
in company, they were the terror of the whole
country. ;Adan, Poe was oyerjoyed at the idea
of measuring his strength with that of so cele-
brated e.hief, and urged the pursuit with a
keenness khich quickly brought him into the
vicinity off the enemy. For the last few miles,
the trail Had led them up the southern bank OF
the Ohio, where the footprints in the sand were
deep and obvious, but when within few hun
dred yarcfs of the point at which the whites as
well as thu Indians were in the habit of cross
ing, 1t suddenly diverged from the stream, and
stretched along rocky ridge, forming an OBJ
fuse angle with its former direction. Here
Adam ha;ted for moment, and directed his
brother aid the other young men to follow the
trail withiproper caution, while he himself still
adhered d the river path, which led l1sf5sss,
clusters Of willows directly to the poi13( Mere
he supposed the enemy to lie. Having exam
ined the pIiming of his gun, he crept cautiously
through the bushes, until he had view Of the
point of dmbarkation. Here lay two canoes,
empty arH apparently deserted. Being salts
fed, howhver, that the Indians were close at
hand, he irelaxed nothing of his vigilance, and
quickly ghined iutting cliff, which hang i'm
mediatelE over the canoes. Hearing low
murmur below, he peered cautiously over, and
beheld thh object of his search. The gigantic
Big Foot lay below him in the shade of willow
and was talking in low deep tone to another
warrior, who seemed mere pigmy by his side.
Adam cautiously drew back and cooked his
gun. Tie mark was fair, the distance did not
exceed twenty feet, and his aim was unerring.
Raising Ills rifle slowly and cautiously, be took
steady jain at Big Foot's breast, and drew the
trigger. Hills gun flashed. Both Indians sprung
TO their feet with deep inter- lection of surprise
and for Il single second all three stared upon
each oth{r. The inactivity, however, was soon
over Al dam was too much hampered by the
bushes td retreat, and setting his life upon a
cast of tI5e die, be sprung over the bush which |
had sheltered him, and summoning all his pow
ers, leaptd boldly down the precipice, and
alighted hpon the breast Of Big Foot with &.
shock which bore him to the earth. At the
Of contact Adam had also thrown his
right ARM around the neck of the smaller Ing
1ian, so shat all three came to the earth to-
yether. .....
cat thht moment sharp firing was heard
smong thu bushes above, announcing that the
'ther parss les were engaged, but the trio below
we're too busy to attend to any thing but them
elves. Dig Foot was for an instant stunned
" the violence of the shock, and Adam was :
nabled tt keep them down. But the exertion :
flor that purpose was SO great that he {
ad no eis lure to use his knife. Big Foot quick r
recovered, and without attempting to rise, +
raped Ills long arms around Adams body r
pd pressad him to his breast with the crushing
,rce of a boa constructor. Adam, as we have
lready eInarked, was powerful man, and had
eldom enfountered his equal, but never had he +
ct felt an embrace like that of Big Foot. He Il
stantsy lielaxed his hold of the small Indian, 6
no sprung TO his feet Big Foot then ordered t
i'm to rus, for his tomahawk, which lay within a
n steps, Ind kill the white man, while he held Il
in in hi4 arms. Adam, seeing his danger, a
ruggled snanfully to e1tricate himself from the J
Ids of tile giant, but in vain. The lesser In y
an approached with his tomahawk, but Adam h
atched f$m closely, and as he was about to a
rike, gave him kick SO suddenly and violent a
} to knock the tomahawk from his hand, and 6
md him staggering back into the water Big y
DOT utte1ed an exclamation in tone of deep n
'mpssionI and raising his voice to the highest a
Itch, Murdered out several words in the In U
an tongue, which Adam could not understand n
ut suppohed to be a direction for a second at n
ok. Thf lesser Indian now again approached, n
srefuly Ahunning Adams heels, and making
any motions with his tomahawk, in order to h
scelve HIM as to the point where the blow f
ould fail: This lasted for several seconds, f
ntll Numbering exclamation from Big Foot f
'mpelledshls companion to strike. Such was a
dams dfxterity and vigilance, however, that q
: managid to receive the tomahawk in gIanc- =
6 direction upon his left wrist, wounding him d
seply buI not disabling him. He now made b
sudden desperate effort to free himself from l.
e arms It the giant and succeeded Instantly Il
atching up rifle flor the Indian could not n
DOT for :fear Of hurting his companion) he
OF the Iefser Indian through the body But "
arcely hid dore SO when Big Foot arose, and h
acing onE hand upon his collar and the other a
ION his Up, pitched him ten feet in the air. as II
HIMSELF would have pitched child. Adam v
i upon bis back at the edge of the water, but y
fore his antagonist could spring upon him, v
was ag''ln upon his feet, and stung with rage a
the idealof being handled SO easily, be at Il
cked his gigantic antagonist with fury which
lily compensated for inferiority of strength D
was now fair fist fight between them, for Il
the hurry Of the struggle neither had leisure p
draw thtlr knilv YES Adams superior activi- n
and experience as pugilist gave him great c
vantagel The Indian struck awkwardly, and b
ding hirtself rapidly dropping to leeward, he V
osed witi his antagonist, and again hurled n
m to the gronnd. They quickly rolled into II
river, 4nd the struggle continued with I'M a
tod fuRY ,ttn LII