The Delaware farmer., 1883-09-14

and the boy were assigned encamped o.
an island in the Merrimac River. A
midnight, the captives secured hatchet
and killed ten Indians-two men, tw'
women, and six children-one favorit'
boy, whom they meant to spare, and one
badly wounded woman, escaping. After
they had left the camp, the fugitives re-
membered that nobody in the settle
ments would believe, without evidence,
that they had performed so redoubtable
an action; they therefore returned and
scalped the Indians, after which they
scuttled all the canoes on the island but
one, and in this escaped down the Mer-
rimac, 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. Duston twenty-five pounds,
and granted half that amount to each Of
her companions. The story of their dar-
ing deed was carried far to the south
ward, and Governor Nicholson, Of Mary
land, sent a valuable present to the es-
capped prisoners.
Many captives never returned. Be
sides those who were put to death, and
those who died Of famine, fatigue, and
disease, a large number of the younger
ones adopted Indian habits, intermarried
with the savages, and remained in the
tribes. These were spoken of with bit
terness in New England as contributing
to increase the enemies of their country.
A lad, Timothy Rice, captured in Mas
sachusetts during Philips war, became
one of the six chiefs of the Catholic |
Mohawks in Canada; and Eunice VIII
liams, daughter of the Deerfeld minis
ter, married and remained in the tribe
from which her family had suffered so
much She visited Deerfeld in after
years, wearing blanket and a crucifx.
Children were now and then recovered
who had forgotten their mother-tongue
md who had become savages in habit.
When Mrs. johnson, of New Hamp-
hire, after tedious captivity, got her
children together again, one son was an
accomplished savage, handling the bow
nd speaking only the Mohawk, and one
nothing but the language,
elgion and culture of a Montreal con- I
ent. A lad from the mountains of
when released, refused to
9turn home; his father visited him
nong the Indians of Ohio, and won his
lection, and SO brought him back, but E
9 spent his life as a pioneer, and was to
le last an Indian in habit and feeling.
Formal rites of adoption, not unlike -
ose in use in some ancient communi- :,
IS, were sometimes performed in the
Sc OF adults who were taken to replace
me dead tribesman, Colonel James
NTH, who was captured while young
an in Pennsylvania and beaten to in /,
visibility in running the gauntlet, was
length formally adopted to replace a +,
ief He was taken into the water. i'm
'rsed, and roughly scrubbed by some
ung squaws to get all the white blood
Of his veins. After living six years eo
Ong the Indians, he returned home to ie
d that his betrothed had married
: days before his arrival. The Indians DE
tally insisted that adopted captives on
'uld marry. One Pennsylvania woman no
= accepted husband after she had ma
n tied to a stake and threatened with sh
; and Mrs. Bard, among the same CO.
ians, avoided taking a husband by 1al
Ising to learn the language. Hugh an'
son, another Pennsylvania captive. are
whipped for refusing the advances
squaw, after which he contrived to
pc, in company with two captive her
J who had also been notified that one
r must marry in the tribe. 8
lrious complications arose from long knC
ivities. A Pennsylvania, taken in had
5ter County, reached home Just as pro
of his estate had fin is a
selling off at auction all of his "
s, which he proceeded to reclaim adv
his surprised neighbors before they O
removed them. Tedious litigation the
e instance resulted from doubt of one
IDENTIFY of a girl returned from cap to
2; and Mary Jameson, who was We
! from Pennsylvania in childhood reso
vas twice married to Indians, spent
Id age among white people in New Al
for September. ,,on
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