The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-08-02

survivor-John Moredock, the widows old
est son, who had fought like young tiger
killing several savages. When he saw that
all had to perish he managed, under cover
of the smoke, to crawl into crevice in the
base of the rock where he could see all that
was passing In front of him. spectator of
a scene OF Indian ferocity which turned his
young heart to flint and planted in. his
breast thirst for revenge which became
the ruling passion of his life, continuing
Unsuitable until the day of his death. forty
years after. The carnage now being conf
plete, the blood-bespattered savages, with
forty dripping scalps hanging at their belts,
rushed to the boats for plumber. They all
embarked and padded across TO the oppo-
site shore, landing nearly a mile below
The Indians having left the locality. John
Moredock emerged from his place of con-
cealment just the sun went down Behind
the treetops and stood amid the CHASTITY
and disfigured corpses of his family and
friends. not one of whom gave the slightest
evidence that spark Of life remained. All,
all were still in death. Being satisfied of
this fact, and finding deep trench in the
saIdbar against the overhanging rocks, he
there tenderly deposited the body of his be-
loved mother and each member of the fam
lily, six in all, were placed by her side; he
then dragged from drift pile near by logs
and brush sufficient TO cover them and pro-
tect them from the attacks OF wild beasts
until such time"as he could return with
sistance and give the dead a proper Sc
pulehre. He stood for a moment contem-
plating the sad scene before him; there lay
the gray-haired, the middle-aged and the
helpless infant cold in death He turned
from the spot, transformed into that most
fearful of all beings, thoroughly desper-
ate man. Hurrying away in the darkness
towards Kaskaskia, where he arrived the
following morning, he brought to the in
habitants the first news of the massacre
which had occurred near their village.
John Moredock was born leader of men,
and his heart-rending story of the mas
sacre so touched the hearts of his hear
ers that he had no trouble in raising a suf
ficient number of sturdy and fearless back
woodsmen to follow the murderous band,
numbering in all, perhaps twenty. On the
following morning John Moredock started
on his march of revenge, at the head of
twenty-five young and middle-aged men,
who had bound themselves to their leader
by an oath never to give up the pur-
suit until the last one of the marauding
band engaged iii the attack at Grand Tower
had been slain.
PURSUING THE ENEMY.
Keen as a pack of bloodhounds, this de-
termined band of avengers ranged the
frontiers from the Des Moines to the Ohio,
at times almost within reach of their vic
tins, then losing all trace of them on the
boundless prairies over which they roamed,
unconscious of the nemesis that was on
their trail.
At last the avengers came up with their
game, encamped upon the banks of trib-
utary OF the Mississippi. On accommodating
the ground Moredock found the camp was
pitched in an almost impregnable spot and
resolved not to attack the Indians that
| night, but await a more favorable oppor-
tunty, his object was to annihilate
them, not to make partial blow and dis
perse them. The revenge must be complete.
A few days later the desired opportunity
presented itself; he found the entire band
encamped on a small island in the middle
of the Mississippi. After hasty consulta-
| ton with his companions a course of pro-
ceedure was determined upon which strik-
| ingly displays boIn the monomaniacal ten
dency of the leader and the desperate
ascendancy he welded over his followers.
| This was nothing less than to shut them
selves up on the narrow island and engage
the savages in a hand-to-hand confiict-a
conflict from which neither party could re-
treat, and which must necessarily end in
| the total destruction of one or the other-a
| most desperate undertaking, when we re-
fleet that the number of the combatants
to- ,.rric
encamped next to impossible. But John
| Moredock and a number of his companions
were monomoniacs, and thoughts OF per-
sonal danger never entered their calcula-
tons. Revenge at any cost was their OBJ
| ject.
| Stealthily the canoes approached the
| island when all sounds there had ceased,
and landed without being discovered. a
| few moments sufficed to set their own
canoes, as well as those of the Indians,
adrift, and then, with gun in hand and
| tomahawk ready, they glided as noiselessly
as so many panthers through the thicket,
approaching the camp from different direc-
tons. While the assailants were thus clos
| ing in around their prey, not twig snapped
| and scarcely leaf stirred in the thick
| jungle through which those twenty-five
armed avengers were making their way. A
pale glimmer indicated the position of the
unsuspectng savages.
PUNISHED AT LAST.
| Savages roaming at large over the face
of the continent, without fixed habitations,
and relying upon chance for the supply of
their few wants, know nothing of that
regularity of habit which devotes certain
fixed portions of time to the various pur-
poses of life, but each one eats, sleeps or
watches. just as his own feelings may die
tate at the moment, without any regard to
established usages of time or place. Hence
the probability of finding all the members
of an Indian band of the size of this one
asleep at the same time was very small
indeed. On the present occasion two or
three warriors who were smoking over the
embers caught the alarm before the assaii-
ants had quite time to close in. Still the
surprise gave the white men a decided ad-
vantage, as a half dozen or more of the
savages were shot down in their tracks be-
fore they could comprehend the great up
roar which suddenly broke the midnight
stiffness. MOredock and his company, find
ing they were discovered, rushed in upon
them. The fatal results of the first voley
was a lucky thing for the assailants, as the
Indians, Immediately recovering from their
momentary surprise, closed in with their
assailants with a fury that, combined with
would have rendered the result of the strug-
gle a very doubtful matter had the number
of combatants been more nearly even. As
| il WAS the nimble warriors fought their WAY