The Plymouth Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1878-1901, 1901-07-25
CHATTER 6.
CAPTURED BY THE INDIANS.
Continuation

own family or clan and related what
he had seen. All of them knew the
boy personally or by good report and
it was at once agreed that his life
should be spared. BY the custom of
Indians any Ole of them had the right
to claim a captive as slave or to
adopt him as member of the family,
SO Elenip, with his clan behind him,
hurried back to the scene of festivity
where they sought out the captOr and
master of the prisoner and set up
their claim, though not without an
offer of compensation. A horn of
powder was the price agreed upon and
delivered and Elenip again entered
the circle of dancers, this time with
firm tread and stately air, where in
a loud voice he proclaimed the captive
as his young brother and announced
an intention to take him home and
make a great hunter and warrior of
him. There had been SO much blood
shed and the boy was so young that
very little grumbling greeted this
speech of Elenip, who now unloosed
his trembling purchase, telling him
his name and purpose as he did so,
and that night Angus, though guard
ed, slept among friends. They gave
him name in their own language
meaning Shining Red Hair and told
him that he was Elenip's little broth
er and that he would become great
chief, but that if he should attempt
to escape he would be severely punish
ed and become a slave. Unable to
conceive any possibility of escape. GER
tain that his benefactor was dead,
hopeless of ever seeing or hearing
from his parents again, Angus de-
termined to accept his fate and make
the most of it, feeling sure that his
lot would be made easier if he would
strive in every way to please these
forest rovers who had adopted him.
He was shrewd enough also, this
Scotch lad, TO know that by exhibit
ing a gentle and tractable disposition,
such as he possessed by nature, his OPP
portunity for escape might be more
favorable.
The annihilation of BraddOck's
expedition did not end the war. COM
plete as it was. The movement
against Du Quesne was but part of
a vast plan by which the English
hoped by a series of sudden and
crushing blows, all struck at once, to
destroy the power of the French in
America utterly and forever. While
Braddock himself was to wipe out the
frontier forts from Lake Erie to the
Ohio river and the Allegheny noun
tains, three other important opera
tions were to be conducted Colonel
Monkton was sent against Acadia,
which he easily and quickly reduced,
transporting seven thousand of the
unfortunate inhabitants, crowded in
ships like African slaves, to distant
British provinces. General Johnson
was charged with an assault upon
Grown Point, in which he failed
though in September he fought and
won the brilliant battle of Lake
George. The third point of attack
was the fort at Niagara, which, how
ever, was never reached by the divis-
ion launched against it, and to the
support of this fortress all the French
troops and Indian allies that could be
spared from Pennsylvania were hur-
ried. The camp at Du Quesne was
abandoned and band after band, in
endless procession, passed up the river
by Venango and lie Boeuf to Presqu
Isle and thence to the great falls.
Several tribes were sent in other di-
rections. some toward Detroit and
others down the Ohio, the tribe to
which Elenip belonged being among
the latter.
A few days after the events attend
ing the adoption of Shining Red Hair
he and his new relatives embarked in
a little flotilla of deep-laden canoes
and floated down the blue sunny bo-
som of the Ohio, skirting lofty hills,
peering into the dark depths of the
unhroken forests that came to the
very margin of the stream, and at
night drawing into the mouth of some
creek and camping: on the bank. And
so. after some days of quiet and un-
eventful travel down the peaceful cur
rent of the beautiful Ohio, they came
one afternoon to the mouth of lar
GER tributary than any they had yet
nassed. the shimmering flood of the
Muskineum. the river that drains the
fertile plain of the middle basin OF
Ohio. and they drew up their c;Inoes
ON the bank where generation later
General Rufus Putnam was so pleased
v;tb the prospect that he founded