Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1867-12-25

tivity among the Indians On the 18th of
March previous, Hannah Dustin had been
compelled to rise from child-bed, and half
dressed, with one foot bare, accompanied by
her nurse, commenced an uncertain march, in
still unclement weather, through the snow
and wilderness. She had seen her seven
children flee with their father, but knew net
of their fate. She had setn her infant s
brains dashed out against an apple-tree, and
had left her own and her neghbors dwellings
in ashes. When she reached the wigwam of
of her captor, situated on an island in the
Merrimack, more than twenty miles above
where we now are, she had been tcld that
she and her nurse were soon to be taken to a
distant Indian settlement, and there made to
run the gauntlet naked. The family of this
Indian consisted of two men, three women,
and seven children, beside an English boy
whom she found prisoner among them.
Having determined to attempt her escape,
she instructed the boy to inquire of one of
the men, how he should despatch enemy
in the quickest manner, and take his scalp.
" Strike 'em there said he, placing his fin
ger on his temple and also showed him how
to take off the scalp. On the morning of the
3lst she arose before daybreak, and awoke
her nurse and the boy, and taking the In
dams tomahawk, they killed them all in
their sleep. excepting one favOrltc boy, and
one squaw who fled wounded with him to the
woods. The English boy struck the Indian
who had given him the information, on the
temple. as he had been directed. They then
collected all the provisions they could find,
and took their masters tomahawk and gun,
and scuttling all the canoes but one, COM
menced their flight to lIaverhill, distant
about sixty miles by the river. But after
having proceeded a short distance, fearing
1 4 h. Io1f ~ -l,a
should escape to tell it, they returned to the
silent wigwam, and taking off the scalps of
the dead, put them into a bag as proofs of
what they had done, and then retracing their
steps to the shore in the twilight, recon-
nenced their voyage.
Early this morning this deed was per-
formed, and now, perchance, these tired
women and this boy, their clothes stained
with blood. and their minds racked with al
ternate resolution and fear, are making a
hasty meal of parched corn, and moose meat,
while their canoe glides under these pine
roots whose stumps are still standing on the
bank They are thinking of the dead whom
they have left behind on that solitary isle far
up the stream and Of the relentless living
warriors who are in pursuit Every with
cred leaf which the winter has left seems tC
know their story. and it's rustllng to repeat
il and betray them. An Indian turks behind
every rock and pine and their nerves cannot
! bear the tapping of a woodpecker. Or they
forget their own dangers and their deeds IL
coniecturing the fate of their kindred, anc
whether, if they escape the Indians, they
shall find the former still alive. They dC
not stop TO cook their meals upon the bank
nor land except to carry their canoo about the
falls. The stolen birch f0rgets its master
and does them good service, and the swoller
current bears them swiftly along with little
need of the paddle except to steer and keel
them warm bv exercise. For ice Is floating
in the river; the spring Is opening Tho
musk-rat and beaver are driven out Of theil
holes bv the food deer gaze at them from
the bank a few faint singing-forest birds
perchance. ily across the northernmOst shore
the tish-hawk sails and screams overhead
and geese fly over with startling clangor
but they do not observe these things, or the,
speedily forget them They DO not smile o.
chat ali day Sometimes they pass an In
dian grave surrounded by its paling on th'
bank, or the frame of wigwam, with a few
Goals left behind or with withered stalk
still rustling in the lndianss' solitary corn
field on the interval. The birch stripped o
IT'S bark or the charred stump where a tire,
had been burned down to be made into a ca
noe, these are the only traces OF man.
fabulous wild man to US. ON either side
the primeval forest stretches away into Cana
da. or to the South Sea - TO the whit
man drear and howling wilderness but t
the Indian a home. adapted TO his nature
and cheerful as the smile Of the Great Spirit
While we loiter here this autumn evening
looking for a spot retired enough, where w
shall quietly rest Tonight. they thus IN tina
chilly March evening, one hundred and forty
two years before us with wind and currcn
favorins, have already glided out Of sight
not to camp as shall at night. but whll
two sleep one viii manage the canoe, AM
the swift stream bear them onward to tn
settlements it may be, even to old John Love
wells house on Salmon Brook tonight
According to the historians, they escape
as bv a miracle all rowing bands Of Indians
and reached their homes in safety, with thci
trophies. for which the General Court pai'
them fifty pounds The family of Hanna
Dustin all assembled alive once more. exceI
the infant whose brains were dashed GU
against the apple-tree, and there have bee
many who in latter times have lived to sa
that they had eaten of the fruit of that az
ple-trec.
SANTA Fn AND BAck.-Of this book a re
viewer says
Col James F. Meline, now on Genera
, Pope's staff in Georgia, Is the author Of
volume of travels Just publshcd by Iurd I
; Houghton. New York Two Thousand Mile
on horseback Santa Fe and Back.
Summer Tour through Kansas, Nebraska
Colorado, and New Mexico, in the yea
, lS6G.'' The narrative is a familiar one
=. given in the form Of letters, which bear tn
mark Of having been written upon the route
when incidents of travel were fresh in mind
4 and corrected afterwards when the authO
was at leisure to pay attention to lterar
excellence The author has besides give
study to such points in his narrative as bea
upon history, especially that of the Spanis
settlement, and has thus made his work val
liable beyond mere itinerary. He is
, good traveller, and combining the discipline
mind of student with the training of a
army officer, is well qualified to give
: oninion upon what he observes. His mod