The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-08-11

ing myself, and selling my life ut good
high figure. In the thicket found MIR.
Gerard, the interpreter, q half-breed
Indian, and Private O'Neill. of company
| q, Seventh Cavalry. The first two OF the
quartette had their horses, while O'Neill,
like myself, was dismounted / told the
owners OF the horses that the presence
| of the animals would betray us, suggest
ing at the same time that they be STAN
peded. They declined to act ON the
suggestion. and I left them and crawled
through the thick underwood into the
deep. dry bottom of the creek, where l
could not be easily discovered, and from
whence 1 hoped to be able, under cover
of darkness, to steal out and reloin the
command. had not been III this hiding
place more than ten minutes when l
heard several pistol-shots fired in my I'M
mediate vicinity, and shortly thereafter
came the silvery, but to me diabolical,
voices of several "squaws. raised
INV head with great caution to see what
the women were at, and to discover their
exact location.
soUAws AT scALPNG.
I found the women mt the revolving
work of scalping soldier who was per-
haps not yet dead. Two of the ladies
were cutting away, while two others per-
formed sort of war dance around the
body and it's mutilators. L will not at
tempt to describe to you my feelings at
witnessing the disgusting performance.
You, as the father of family, can i'm
agine what another father would feel on
such n terrible occasion. l confess j
thought of my dear wife, my dear chill
dren, relatives, and friends, whom would
probably see no more, and there before
my eyes was being performed what, in
the event of discovery, would be my
fate. / determined to hope to the last,
die as had lived, and sell my life as
dearly as possible. Finally the squaws
went away, probably to hunt for more
victims, and employed the time think
ing of my perilous position.
SURROUNDED BY FIRE.
While thus engaged, heard a crack
ling noise near me, which, on invest.
eating, 1 found proceeded from the
bruningwood, the Indians having ignited
a fire. The wood being very dry the fire
made rapid Roadway, and was forced
from my hiding place. crawled out of
the creek bottom the same way had APP
preached, and, as l was about to ascend
the bank, heard voice calling, "Lieu-
tenant Lieutenant !" | could see no
one, but the callswas repeated, and, adj
vancing a few yards in The direction
from which it proceeded, found all
three of the party / had left short
while before hidden in the bottom of the
NJ. ri 4,Nll hA ha1 laff
the horses, tied together, where / had
seen them, and followed down after me-.
found that the party, like myself,
were afraid of the progress Of the fire
but, fortunately for us, the wind sub
sided and little rain fell, which, thank
God, was sufficient to arrest the flames
and revive our hope that we might be
able to remain there till night. 1t was
now B o'clock p. M, six more hours to
wait, and you may imagine how i'm
mensely long we found them. During
this time we could hear and often see the
Indians around us, and could hear them
talk quite near us.
AWFUL SUSPENSE.
/ cannot find words sufficiently ex-
preSsive to describe nay thoughts during
those six or seven hours of suspense.
Many times / askedmyself if it was pos
sible that l should end mytlife in so bar
barous, inglorious and obscure man.
ner. Sometimes / would answer myself
that it could not be / had gone through
so many dangers, had made 50 many
sacrifices for my adopted country, l could
not think should die in such a way L
could not believe Z had been preserved
so long to end in so unjust and obscure
q manner. Finally the time came when,
under the protection of night Git was
very cloudy, we were able to come out
of our hiding-place and take the direc-
ton of the ford, which was two miles to
the south, through an open plain. Mr.
Gerard and the scout mounted their
horses and the soldier and myself took
hold each one of horses tail and fol-
lowed them. Mr.. Gerard proposed that,
in case he should be obliged to run and
leave us and succeeded in joining the
command, he would notify Col. Reno,
the commander, of my position. Dur
ing our transit through the open plain
we passed many Indians returning to
their village, and could hear but not see
them, as the night was very dark. We
reached the wood near what we took to
be the ford we had passed in the morn
ing, but we were mistaken and had to
hunt for the crossing. Once we forded
the stream, but found it was at a bend
and that we would have to ford it again.
When we recrossed the river we ran full
into band of eight savages.
ANOTHER THRILLING ADVENTURE.
The two mounted men ran for their
lives; the soldier and myself jumped
into the bushes near us. ] cooked my
revolver, and, in kneeling position, was
ready to fire at the savages if they should
approach me. They evidently thought
from the precipitate retreat of the two
mounted men that all of us had de-
camped, and began to talk among them
selves. In few minutes, to my sur
prise, they continued their course, and
soon went out of hearing. / raised up
from my position, approached the bank
of the river and called to the soldier,
who Immediately answered. We then
saw that the fords were all well guarded
by the savages, and that it would be very
dangerous to attempt to cross any part
of the river. OF course, we did not
know the condition Of our regiment, and
knew nothing about the extent of their