Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1883-08-28
FAMOUS ESCAPES FROM INDIANS.

FAMOUS ESCAPES FROM INDIANS.
DR.. Edward Eggleston's profusely il
Illustrated paper in the September Centu-
ry on "Indian War in the Colonies re-
counts the following exploits: "Stories
of marvellous and ingenious escapes were
the romance of the colonies, and such adj
ventures date back to the earliest Indian
war in Virginia, where a man and his
wife, WHO had been spared in the whole
sale slaughter, found their opportunity
while the Indians were dancing for JOY
over the acquisition 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
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 plundering
party in time to share in the spoil. Brack-
cts 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 reach
ed Black Point, where they got on board
a 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
H,nnah Bradley, previously mentioned
effected an ingenious escape. lying all the
frs, dav in hollow log and using their
provisions 70 make friends with the dogs
tina, had tracked them. They journeyed
in extreme peril and suffering for nine
davs and one of them fell down with ex-
haus,ion just as they were entering
white settlement A young girl in Mass
.cbuse,,s. after three weeks Of captivity,
made a bride of bark, and catching a
horse. rode all night through the woods
TO Concord. Mrs. Dean, taken at Oys-
Ter River in 1894, was left, with her
daughter, in charge OF an old Indian while
%. ,es, finished their work of destruc-
ton. The old fellow asked mis- prisoner
what would cure pain in his head. she
,ocommended him to drink some rum
taken from her house. This put him TO
sleep, and the woman and child got away
Another dvwn-east captive, with the H.
ting name Of Toogood, while his capt
during an attack on a settlement was DIS
en,anpling a piece of string with which
TO tie him. jerked the Indians gun from
under his nm and, leveling II at his head,
got safely away.
Escaping cap,ives endured extreme
hardships. One Bard,taken IN rens!'-
vania, lived nine days on few buds and
four snakes. Mrs. lnglis, captured In
the valley Of Virginia, escaped IN CON-
panv with a German woman from place
far down the Ohio River. After narrow
Ily avoiding discovery and recaPture' they
succeeded in ascending the south bank
of the Ohio for some hundreds of miles.
When within few days travel OF set
Elements, they were so reduced by famine
that the German woman, enraged
that she bad been persuaded to desert
the Indian flesh-pots, and crazed with
hunger. made an unsuccessful attack on
her companion with canibal Intentions
The most famous Of all the escapes
of New England captives was that OF
Hannah Duston, Mary Nef, and boy
Samual I.eonardson. These three were
carried off, with many others, in 1857,
in an attack on Haverhill. Mrs. Dustons
infant child having been killed by the
Indians. When the captors had separa-
ted. the party to whom the two women
and the boy were assigned encamped on
an island in the Merrimac River. At
midnight, the cap,ives secured hatche's
and killed ten Indians-two men, two
women, and six children-one tavari'e
boy, whom they meant to spare, and one
badly wounded woman, escaped. After
they had lef, the camp, the fugitives re-
membered that nobody in that settlement
would believe, without evidence, that
they had performed so redoubtable an &C
ton 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 Merrimac, and
finally reached Haverhill This was
such an exploit as made the actors I'M
mediately famous in that bloody time.
The Massachusetts General Court gave
Mrs Dpston TWENTY-FIVE pounds and |