The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1883-09-14

LII. EuWafQ CRRlebtDli, III u phpot III
the Ge1tury on Indian War In Col
onies," recounts the following exploits:
Stories of marvellous and ingenious
escapes were the romance of the col
onies, and such adventures date back
10 the earliest Indian war in Virginia,
where q man and his wife, who had
been spared in the Wholesale slaughter,
found their opportunity while the
Indians were dancing for JOY over the
acquisition of a white mans boat that
had drifted ashore. These captives got
prised their friends in the settlements,
who had believed them to be dead.
Very like this was the escape of
Anthony Bracket and his wife in Maine.
| They were left TO follow on after their
captors, who were eager to reach a
plunder;ng party in time to share in the
spoil. Brackets wife found broken
lark 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 q vessel. A
little lad of IL years named Eames,
e'AOh III ILL wal, way
thirty miles or more to the settle
ments. Two sons of the famous
Hannah Bradley, effected an in
senious escape, lying all the first
aay in hollow log and using their
provisions 10 make friends with the
dogs that had traced them. They jour
peyed in extreme peril and suffered for
pine days, and one of them fell down
with exhaustion just as they were en-
tering n white settlement. A young
girl in Massachusetts, after three weeks
of captivity, made bride of bark,
and, catching a 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 an old Indian while the rest fin
ished their work of destruction. The
old fellow asked his prisoner what
would cure pain in his head. She
recommended him to drink 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
settlement was disentangling a piece
of string with which to tie him, jerked
the Indians gun from under his arm
and, leveling it at his he'd got safely
away.
Escaping captives endured extreme
hardships. One Bard, taken il Penn
sylvania, lived nine days on few buds
and four snakes. Mrs. Inglis, captured
in the valley of Virginia, escaped, in
company of German woman, from q
place far down the Ohio river. After
narrowl Y avoiding discovery and re-
capture, thev succeeded in ascending
the south bank of the Ohio for some
hundreds of miles. When within q few
days travel of settlements, they were
so reduced by fannie that the German
woman, enraged that she had been per-
suaded to desert the Indian fiesh-pots
and crazed with hunger made an un
successful 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-
tons infant child having been killed by
the Indians. When the captors had
separated, the party to whom the two
women and the boy were assigned en-
camped on an island in the Merrimac
river. At midnight the captives secured
hatchets and killed ten Indians-two
men, two women and six children-one
favorite boy, whom they meant to spare,
and one bad y-wounded woman escap-
ing After they had left the camp the
fngitives remembered that nobody in
he settlements would believe, without
evidence, that they had performed so
pndoubtable an action; they therefore
returned and scalped the Indians, after
which they scuttled all the canoes on
he island but one, and in this escaped
down the Merrimac and finally reached
Haverhill. This was such an exploit
as made the actors Immediately famous
in that bloody time. The Massachusetts
General Court gave Mrs. Dustan f25
and granted half that amount to each
Of her companions. The story of their
daring deed was carried far to the
southwark, and Gov Nicholson, Of
Maryland, sent a valuable present to
The escaped prisoners.