inftant death, with which they were threatened, in cafe of difobedience and refufal: they were, therefore, under the neceffity of joining the other two white men. Mr. Johnfon, however, though compelled, for the prefervation of his own life, to pretend to do like the others, firmly determined not to make himself guilty of cccafioning the flavery, or probable death, of the unfortunate paffengers on board, by any voluntary action on his part; and, confequently, neither to make the smalleft gefture, nor to speak a word and well might he fpare himself this trouble. His companions exerted themselves to the utmoft, to excite the compaffion of the paffengers on board, who, without the leaft hefitation, stood in towards the fhore, to fuccour and rescue from flavery thofe whom they thought unfortunate captives. Scarcely had they approached within a small distance of the fhore, when the Indians, who, as on the preceding day, had stolen along behind the bushes, haftened up, fired, and fhot the fix perfons on board. Shouts of victory fucceeded to the howls of barbarous rage. The veffel was hauled on fhore; and two of the ill-fated paffengers, who were not yet dead, were immediately dispatched with the tomahawk. The fix fcalps were torn off and dried, and the booty was divided, but with fewer formalities than on the preceding day. Soon after the scouts made fignals, that three other veffels were in fight the fame ftratagem was employed, but for this time, in vain. The families on board, which were proceeding to Kentucky, did not appear to make any attempt to deviate from their courfe, but, on the contrary, purfued it with redoubled activity. The Indians fired at the veffels, but from the breadth of the Ohio, which, in this place, is almost a mile, the balls took no effect: yet the paffengers were panic ftruck. Of the three veffels, which they occupied with their cattle, they deferted two, and joined all in one; believing that they might thus proceed fafter,

:

and

and more certainly make their escape. The other two veffels they abandoned to the ftream. This measure inspired the Indians with a hope of seizing them, which they would never have attempted, if the paffengers, without leaving thefe two veffels, had ftedfastly pursued their courfe. The Indians, who, in all their enterprifes, were rather animated by a thirst for plunder, than by real courage, never venture upon an attack, without being convinced that they are fuperior in ftrength; a conviction which they do not readily admit. Infpirited by their number, by the obvious panic of their enemies, and by the feparation of their means of defence, they refolved on purfuing them. Having on the preceding day captured two veffels, they went on board, embarked their prifoners, and, with all poffible fpeed, purfued the flying fhip. The two veffels which had been abandoned to the ftream, foon fell into their hands; but, not fatisfied with their capture, they were bent upon taking the third, which they pursued with redoubled exertion, raifing dreadful howls, and difcharging all their pieces; but their fire proved as ineffectual as their other exertions. The fugitive veffel having gained confiderably the start of them, approached a spot where the Indians feared to encounter new enemies. They were, accordingly, obliged to relinquish their defign, and to content themselves with the rich booty which had already fallen into their hands. They brought every thing on shore, and, without distributing the whole, fell eagerly on fome casks of whisky. They drank to largely, that all of them were foon intoxicated. Six or seven, to whom was committed the charge of guarding the booty, and who had been ordered at the beginning of these Bacchanalian revels, to drink with moderation, retained alone the use of their fentes. the reft lay buried in a profound fleep; and, among them, the leader of the party and the guards of the prifoners. Mr. Johnson's mind was too deeply affected by

All

his dreadful fituation to fhare in this difgufting banquet. Totally abforbed in the contemplation of the dangers and miferies that awaited him, and eagerly defirous of warding them off, if poffible, he conceived that the profound fleep of all the Indians around him might afford the means of efcape, and communicated his idea to James Skuyl, who was lying by his fide. The veffels were faftened to ftakes along the fhore, at a fmalt distance from them: the fuccefs of their enterprise depended merely on their stealing thither unobferved, throwing themselves into the first veffel they should find, the night being very dark, and abandon her to the ftream. Succefs appeared as certain, if they could reach the veffels, as inftant death, on the other hand, if they were apprehended.

The laft words of this converfation were uttered in a voice fo very low, that it was impoffible to conceive they fhould have been understood by an Indian, who lay at a confiderable diftance, though he were even poffeffed of a knowledge of the English tongue; yet he arofe, and tied them in the fame manner as the preceding night, without showing, however, the least paffion, nay, without fpeaking a word.

Thus the pleafing hopes of the two prifoners were blafted on a fudden, and converted into renewed de-* fpair.

At break of day the furrounding troop awoke; they were untied; and this day, the third of their captivity, was fpent in continual revels, kept up with the whisky, which had been left the preceding day. The leader, probably from an opinion that this expedition had already proved fufficiently productive, proclaimed his will on the next following day, that it fhould be clofed; and the different tribes, which had taken a fhare in it, fet out on their way home. They all inhabited the neighbourhood of the lakes Ontario and Erie. The leader of the most numerous tribe was a Shawanefe; the reft VOL. VIII. P

were

were Lower Creeks, Wyandats, Mingoes, Othenwages, Delawares, Ottawas, Chepowas, and Cherokees.

Mr. Johnfon, with James Skuyl, being compelled to accompany the Shawanese on their return, often experienced much brutal treatment; Mr. Johnfon was fold by them to a chief of the Mingoes; but falling in foon after with the fame tribe of the Shawanefe, who were the stronger party, he was violently torn from his new mafters, and "re-plunged into his former anxiety and mifery.'

His fituation appeared to him the more defperate, as a French merchant of Canada, who, being informed by the Indians that the Shawanese had a white prisoner with them, came to redeem him, but had met with a refufal from the chief, who told him, that he meant to lead him, with the other booty, in triumph through his town. The merchant promifed Mr. Johnson to renew his application the next morning, but the latter had renounced all hope. The merchant actually came the next morning according to his promife, at the time of the arrival of the prifoner, and made feveral trifling bargains with the Indiáns: but all his applications concerning Johnson were in vain. An event, with which his moft fanguine hopes could not have flattered him, foon took place. The Shawanefe, proceeding on their journey, met an Indian with a horfe loaded with whifky; part of the booty was quickly exchanged for fome barrels: The next morning the remainder of the booty went the fame way, and on the following day they paid the Indian for what whisky he had left, in horfes, which they had brought with them from the banks of the Ohio. The Shawanese paffed fix days in a ftate of continual intoxication, and continued drinking until they had nothing left to drink. Afhamed to return to their tribe without any trophies, but one fingle prifoner, they determined on another expedition, in

which Mr. Johnson was to co-operate

Yet, on ma

ture deliberation, they found it still mare adviseable to fell the prifoner, in order to be able to drink whisky, and drink it largely, previously to their taking the field again. The expreffion of vehemence and favagenefs in their faces, which was heightened by the fumes of whisky, not yet altogether evaporated, greatly increafed Mr. Johnson's uneasiness during thefe debates. It was in vain his woe-worn mind endeavoured to find out their object, when the following morning he was called to the two chiefs, who ordered him to mount a horfe and push on with them as fast as he could. He now imagined his laft hour was come, but this time his fear was not of long duration. The place whither he was conducted was not above five miles diftant; it was the habitation of Mr. Duchoquet, the merchant whom he had already feen. After fome glaffes of whisky had been drunk, the bargain was foon ftruck; fix hundred fmall filver fhirt-buckles, fuch as the common people wear, constituted the ranfom, amounting to twenty-five louis d'or.

At the beginning of June, Mr. Duchoquet fet out with his gueft on his journey to Canada. Lake Erie was but fifty miles diftant. They embarked there for Detroit, where Mr. Duchoquet refides, and arrived there on the 13th of June.

The English governor ordered Mr. Johnfon to be conveyed across Lake Erie, in a king's yacht. Thence he went in another veffel to the celebrated cataract of Niagara, to conceive an adequate idea of which, is beyond the powers of human fancy. From this ftupendous water-fall he proceeded in a boat along the banks of Lake Ontario, and thence on the river Oswego to Albany, New York, and Virginia, where, having been afflicted fix weeks by fate, favages, and mufquitoes, he rejoined his family, whom he had utterly defpaired of ever seeing again; happy that fo many fufferings terminated in this fortunate but unexpected event.