The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1930-07-11

dish was held captive, he saw two of
them engaged in an angry dispute.
Suddenly one of them turned and shot
her from the saddle. scalping her as
she fell. Then, according to their saw
age custom. they stripped her of the
wedding finery, in which she was 60
ing to meet her lover, and mutilated
her body horribly. They then contin-
ued on to Burgoyne's camp, where
they told what had happened and eX-
hibited her scalp.
While this was taking place fat old
Mrs. Mcneil was having her troubles.
Although she had not been injured by
her captors, they had stripped her to
single undergarment and in this she
appeared in camp where the Indian
turned her over to her cousin, General
Fraser. That officer was much en-
barrassed, for he was not able to find
in camp any wOmen'S clothes large
enough for Mrs. Mcneil. Finally. out
of his own wardrobe. he produced a
great coat large enough to cover her.
All the while he was forced to listen
to a torrent of abuse from the irate
old lady because of her treatment at
the hands of his "rascally Indians"
But this comic aspect of the affair
soon became a tragic one when Jane
McCrea's scalp was shown to her.
She recognized it at once, as did David
Jones, who then learned of the fate of
his bride-tO-be. Upon being informed
of what had taken place, General Bur-
goyne Immediately held an inquiry, or
dered the Indians to hand over the
murderer, put him under arrest and
announced his intention of executing
him. But st. Luc, the French Cana
dian leader of the Indian allies, in
formed the general if he did that the
Indians, who were already resentful of
| Burgoyne's efforts to restrain them
| from the atrocities which they had
| been committing against the settlers,
would desert in a body and go home,
probably solacing themselves by kill
ing any whites they found, whether
| Loyalist or Patriot. So Burgoyne
| yielded to st. Luc and pardoned the
slayer.
1t is doubtful if even the loss of his
| Indian allies would have been as Sc
| we're a blow to his hopes as were the
results of the murder of Jane McCrea.
| From the beginning of his expedition
| the excuses of his savages had
| brought down upon him criticism in
| England and furious denunciation by
| the Americans. Patriot prOpagandists
had let loose blasts of scorn and bitter
anger at him because he had employed
savages. OF course, they were ignor-
| ing the fact that during the wars with
| the French the Colonists had been
glad enough to have the aid of In
| dians, over whom they had little more
control than had Burgoyne over his
allies. They were ignoring, too, the
| fact that early in the struggle for
| freedom, they themselves, had solicit
ed the aid of Indians and even then
so-called Christian Indians from Stock
bridge, Mass, were fighting on their
side. But propagandists then, as ever
] since that time have not always been
concerned with telling the whole truth
| General Gates, who had succeeded
Schuyler as commander of the Amer
lean forces in the North, was quick to
seize upon this incident. He wrote n
letter to Burgoyne in which he said
| "That the savages of America should
in their warfare mangle and scalp the
! unhappy prisoners who fall into their
hands is neither new nor extraordi
nary; but that the famous Lieutenant
General BurgOyne in whom the fine
gentleman is united with the soldier
and the scholar. should hire the saw
| ages Of America to scalp Europeans
and the descendants of Europeans.
| nay more, that he should pay price
Z, for each scalp SO barbarously taken