The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1883-08-31

Dr. Edward Eggleston's profusely
illustrated paper in the September Cen.
t,ry "Indian War in the Colonies re.
counts the following exploits "Stories
of marvellous and ingenious escapes
were the romance of the colonies, and
such adventures date back to the ear.
liest Indian war in Virginia, where a
man and his wife, who had been spar.
ed in the wholesale slaughter, found
their opportunity while the Indians
were dancing for joy over the acquisi-
ton Of white mans boat that had
drifted ashore. These captives got
into canoe, and soon afterward sur
prised their friends in the settlements,
who had believed them to be dead.
Very likely this was the escape of An
thony Bracket and his wife in Maine.
They were left to follow on after their
captos, who were eager to reach a
plundering party in time to share in the
spoil. Brackets wife found broken
bark canoe, which she mended with
needle and thread the whole family
then put to sea in this rickety craft,
and At length reached Black Point,
where they got on board vessel A
little lad of eleven years named Eames,
taken in Philips war, made his way
thirty miles or more to the settlements.
Two sons of the famous Hannah Brad
Icy, previously mentioned, effected an
ingenious escape, lying all the first day
in hollow log and using their provis-
ions to make friends with the dogs that
had tracked them. They journeyed in
extreme peril and suffering for nine
days, and one of them fell down with
exhaustion just as they ware entering
white settlement. A young girl in
Massachusetts, after three weeks of
captivity, made bride Of bark and
catching horse, rode all night through
the woods to Concord Mrs. Dean,
taken at Oyster River in 1894, was
left, with her daughter in charge of on
old Indian while the rest finished their
work of destruction. The old fellow
asked his prisoner what would cure a
pain in his head. She recommended
him TO take some rum taken from her
house. This put him to sleep, and the
woman and child got away Another
down-east captive, with the fitting
name of Toogood, while his captor
during an attack on a settlement was
disentangling a piece of string with
which to tie him, jerked the Indians
gun from under his arm and, leaveling
it at his head, got safely away.
Escaping captives endured extreme
hardships. One Bard, taken in Penn
sylvania, lived nine days OH few buds
and four snakes. Mrs. Inglis, captur-
ed in the valley of Virginia, escaped in
company with German woman from
place far down the Ohio River. After
narrowly avoiding discovery and re
capture, they succeeded in ascending
the south bank of the Ohio for some
hundreds of miles. When within a
few days travel of settlements, they
were SO reduced by famine that the
German woman, enraged that she had
been persuaded to desert the Indian
lesh-pot and crazed with hunger,
made an unsuccessful attack on her
companion with cannibal intentions
"The most famous of all the escapes
of New England captives was that OF
Hannah Duston, Mary Neff, and boy,
Samuel Leonardson. These three were
carried off, with many others, in 1897
in the attack on Haverhill, Mrs. Dus
tors infant child having been killed b,
the Indians. When the captors had
separated, the party to whom the two
women and boy were assigned encamp
ed on an island in the Merrimac River
AT midnight, the captives secured
hatchets and killed ten Indians-twc
men, two women, and six children
one favorite boy, when they meant Il
spare, and one badly woman escaping
After they had left the camp, the fugi
tives remembered that nobody in tn,
settlements would believe, without evi
dence, that they had performed 80 re
doubtable an action they therefor,
returned and scalped the Indians, aftel
which they scuttled all the canoes OF
the island but one, and in this escaped
down the Merrimac, and finally reached
Haverhill. This was such an exploi
as made the actors Immediately famou
in that bloody time. The Massachus
etts General Court gave Mrs. Dustol
twenty-five pounds and granted hal
that amount to each of her companions
The story of their daring deed wa
carried far to the southwark, and Gov
vernon Nicholson, of Maryland, sent
valuable present to the escaped prison