who had remained concealed all that evening and night, and by that means was enabled to count the number of the enemy,) they declined pursuit, being too weak in numbers to venture further. Thus this savage band got off with their prisoners and booty, without pursuit or interruption.

After six days' travel they reached their villages west of the Allegany mountains, where they held a council, and determined to sacrifice their helpless prisoner Jacob Fisher. They first ordered him to collect a quantity of dry wood. The poor little fellow shuddered, burst into tears, and told his father they intended to burn him. His father replied, "I hope not ;" and advised him to obey. When he had collected a sufficient quantity of wood to answer their purpose, they cleared and smoothed a ring around a sapling, to which they tied him by one hand, then formed a trail of wood around the tree, and set it on fire. The poor boy was then compelled to run round in this ring of fire until his rope wound him up to the sapling, and then back until he came in contact with the flame, whilst his infernal tormentors were drinking, singing, and dancing around him, with "horrid joy." This was continued for several hours; during which time the savage men became beastly drunk, and as they fell prostrate to the ground, the squaws would keep up the fire. With long sharp poles, prepared for the purpose, they would pierce the body of their victim whenever he flagged, until the poor and helpless boy fell and expired with the most excruciating torments, whilst his father and brothers were compelled to be witnesses of the heart-rending tragedy.

After an absence of about three years, Mrs. Painter, with her son and two of her daughters; Mrs. Smith, who had the honor, if it could be so deemed, of presenting her husband with an Indian son,* by a distinguish

* Smith received his wife, and never maltreated her on this account; but he had a most bitter aversion to the young chief. The boy grew up to manhood, and exhibited the appearance and disposition of his sire. Attempts were made to educate him, but without success. He enlisted into the army of the revolution as a common soldier, and never returned.

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ed war chief; Fisher and his remaining sons; and several other prisoners, returned home. Three of Mrs. Painter's daughters remained with the Indians. Mary, the youngest, was about nine years old when taken, and was eighteen years a prisoner: two of the daughters never returned. A man by the name of Michael Copple, who had himself been a prisoner about two years with the Indians, had learned their language, become an Indian trader, and traveled much among them, at length found Mary Painter with a wandering party of Cherokees. In conversing with her, he discovered who she was-that he was acquainted with her family connections, and proposed to her to accompany him home, to which she refused her assent. He then said that her brothers had removed to Point Pleasant, and were desirous of seeing her; upon which she consented to accompany him that far to see her brothers; but finding, on arriving at the Point, that he had deceived her, she manifested much dissatisfaction, and attempted to go back to the Indians. Copple, however, after much entreaty, and promising to make her his wife, prevailed upon her to return home. He performed his promise of marriage, lived several years on Painter's land, and raised a family of children. Mary had lost her mother tung, learned a little English afterwards, but always conversed with her husband in the Indian language." They finally removed to the west.

The garrison at Fort Cumberland was frequently annoyed by the Indians. There are two high knobs of the mountain, one on the Virginia side of the Cohongoruton on the south, the other on the Maryland side on the north east, within a short distance of the fort. The Indians frequently took possession of these hights, and fired into the fort. Although they seldom did any in

The author deems a particular history of this woman necessary, because it is one among many instances of young white children, when taken prisoners, becoming attached to a savage life, and leaving it with great reluctance. Mr. George Painter, an aged and respectable citizen of Shenandoah county, who resides on the spot where this bloody tragedy was acted, and is a grandson of the man who was murdered and burnt, detailed these particulars to

the author.

jury in this way, yet it was disagreeable and attended with some danger. On a particular occasion a large party of Indians had taken possession of the knob on the Maryland side, and fired into the fort. A captain (the author regrets he was not able to learn his name) and seventy-five brave fellows, on a very dark night, volunteered to dislodge the enemy. They sallied out from the fort, surrounded the knob, and cautiously ascending until they were within reach of the foe, waited for daybreak to make the attack. Light appearing, they opened a tremendous fire, which threw the Indians into utter confusion, rendering them powerless for defense, while the whites continued from all sides to pour in volley after volley, spreading death and carnage. But few of the Indians escaped. The knob is called "Bloody Hill" to this day. This tradition the author received from several individuals in Cumberland: indeed, the story appears to be familiar to every aged individual in the neighborhood.

Shortly after this occurrence, Kill-buck attempted to take Fort Cumberland by stratagem. He approached it at the head of a large force of warriors; and under the guise of friendship, pretending to wish an amicable intercourse with the garrison, proposed to Maj. Livingston to admit himself and warriors. Some hints having been given to the commander to be upon his guard, Livingston seemingly consented to the proposal; but no sooner had Kill-buck and his chief officers entered, than the gates were closed upon them. The wily chief being thus entrapped, was roundly charged with his intended treachery, of which the circumstances were too self-evident to be denied. Livingston, however, inflicted no other punishment upon his captives than a mark of humiliating disgrace, which to an Indian warrior was more mortifying than death. This stigma was, it is supposed, dressing them in petticoats, and driving them out of the fort.*

"The venerable John Tomlinson related this affair to the author. Mr. T. does not recollect the particular mark of disgrace inflicted on these Indians. The Rev. Mr. Jacobe, of Hampshire, suggested this as the most probable.

It has already been stated, that, previous to the breaking out of the war, Kill-buck lived a good part of his time among the white settlers in the neighborhood of Fort Pleasant. An Irish servant, belonging to Peter Casey, absconded, and Casey offered a pistole* reward for his recovery. Kill-buck apprehended the servant, and delivered him to his master; but from some cause or other, Casey refused to pay the reward. A quarrel ensued, and Casey knocked Kill-buck down with his cane. When the war broke out, Kill-buck sought every opportunity to kill Casey, but never could succeed. Many years afterwards, Casey's son obtained a lieutenancy, and was ordered to Wheeling, where Kill-buck then being, young Casey requested some of his friends to introduce him to him. When Kill-buck heard his name, he paused for a moment, and repeating, "Casey! Casey!" inquired of the young man whether he knew Peter Casey. The lieutenant replied, "Yes, he is my father." Kill-buck immediately exclaimed, "Bad man, bad man, he once knocked me down with his cane." On the young man's proposing to make up the breach, the old chief replied, "Will you pay me the pistole ?" Young Casey refused to do this, but proposed to treat with a quart of rum, to which the old warrior assented, saying, "Peter Casey old man-Kill-buck old man:" and then stated that he had frequently watched for an opportunity to kill him, "but he was too lazy-would not come out of the fort: Kill-buck now friends with him, and bury the tomahawk." This Indian chief, it is said, was living about fourteen years ago, but had become blind from his great age, being little under, and probably over, a hundred years.

The pistole is a piece of gold, equal to three dollars and seventy-five cents in value.

This anecdote is related, somewhat differently, by Dr. Turley, page 100 of this work.

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CHAPTER VIII.

Indian incursions and massacres....Continued.

In a preceding chapter the erection of several stone dwelling-houses is noticed. These houses generally had small stockade forts about them; and whenever an alarm took place, the neighboring people took shelter in them, as places of security against their savage foe.*

The men never went out of the forts without their guns. The enemy were frequently lurking about them, and at every opportunity would kill some of the people. At the residence of Maj. Robert D. Glass, on Opequon, 5 miles south west of Winchester, part of his dwellinghouse was erected in the time of the Indian war: the port holes were plainly to be seen before the body was covered with weather-boarding. The people were closely "forted" for about three years. After the termination of hostilities between England and France, the incursions of the Indians were less frequent, and never in large parties; but they were continued at intervals until the year 1766 or 1767.

About the year 1758, a man by the name of John Stone, near what is called the White House, in the Hawksbill settlement, was killed by Indians. Stone's wife, with her infant child and a son about 7 or 8 years old, and George Grandstaff, a youth of 16 years old, were taken off as prisoners. On the South Branch mountain, the Indians murdered Mrs. Stone and her infant, and took the boy and Grandstaff to their towns. Grandstaff was about three years a prisoner, and then got home. The little boy, Stone, grew up with the Indians, came home, and after obtaining possession of his father's property, sold it, got the money, returned to

The late Mrs. Rebecca Brinker, one of the daughters of George Bowman, on Cedar creek, informed the author that she recollected when sixteen families took shelter in her father's house.