hanging branches, and plunging with him through the closest thickets, as if with the purpose of increasing his misery.

On his arrival at Chillicothe, the most populous of the Indian towns in this region, he was painted black, tied to the stake, and suffered to remain in this painful situation for twelve hours, anticipating the horrors of a slow, and cruel death, the Indians dancing around him, yelling, screaming and beating him, during the time. He was led out the next morning to run the gauntlet. The Indians, several hundred in number, of both sexes, and every age and rank, armed with sticks, whips, clubs, and other implements of annoyance, were formed in two lines, between which the unhappy prisoner was made to pass; having been promised, that if he reached in safety the door of the council-house, at the farther end of the lines, no further punishment would be inflicted. The moment for starting arrived,-Kenton was stripped naked, the great drum of the council-house was struck,-and he sprang forward in the race. Avoiding the row of his enemies, about a mile in length, he turned to the east, and drew the whole party in pursuit of him. He ran with great activity, now this way and now that, until observing an opening, he darted through it, and pressed forward to the council-house, with a rapidity which left his pursuers behind, and reached it without being seriously injured.

As soon as this race was over, a council was held to determine whether he should be burned to death on the spot, or carried round to other villages for exhibition, and then burned. The council determined upon the latter course. He was then taken from village to village, and obliged to run the gauntlet in thirteen towns. Upon one occasion, he attempted to escape, broke through the ranks of his tormentors, and had outstripped those who pursued him, when he was met by some warriors on horseback, who compelled him to surrender. He was then condemned in council to suffer the terrible death of torture.

Before this was to take place, he was compelled again to run the gauntlet and had nearly reached the gaol, when he was knocked down by a warrior with a club, and the demoniac crew, gathering around his prostrate body, continued to beat him until life seemed nearly extinguished. At length, he was summoned to attend the council, being informed that his fate was already decided. Upon entering the council house, the renegade white man, the notorious Simon Girty, who had just returned from an unsuccessful expedition against the frontiers of Pennsylvania, and was in a very bad humor, threw a blanket upon the floor, and harshly ordered Kenton to take a seat upon it. The order not be.

ing immediately obeyed, Girty impatiently seized, and threw him upon the floor. But upon learning of Kenton his name, he became greatly agitated and springing from his seat, he threw his arms around the prisoner's neck and embraced him with much emotion. Girty and Kenton had served together in Dunmore's war, before Girty had deserted to the Indians, and they were bosom friends. He then turned to the assembled warriors, who remained astonished spectators of this extraordinary scene, and addressed them in a short speech, which the deep earnestness of his tone, and the energy of his gesture, rendered eloquent. He informed them that the prisoner, whom they had just condemned to the stake, was his ancient comrade and bosom friend-that they had travelled in the same war path, and slept upon the same blanket. He entreated them to have compassion upon his feelings-to spare the agony of witnessing the torture of an old friend, by the hands of his adopted brothers. He recapitulated the services he had rendered the Indians, and the many instances of attachment to them he had given. The life of Kenton, he asked as the first and last favor.

The council debated the question for some time, with great earnestness, when the war club was produced and the final vote taken. A majority refused to strike the floor of the council house, and Kenton was liberated.

He

Girty again

was seized, Upon reaching a

Kenton remained with Girty for three weeks, being treated with great kindness. In the meantime, several chiefs from a distance arrived and another council was called, and Kenton ordered to attend. advocated the cause of his friend, but without effect. bound, and immediately marched off under a guard. village upon the head waters of the Scioto, Logan, the celebrated Mingo chief, told him not to be disheartened, and sent runners to Sandusky to intercede for him. The runners returned without succeeding in their efforts to save him, and Kenton was immediately taken to Sandusky. Here a British agent by the name of Drewyer, interposed and once more rescued him from the stake. He was then taken to Detroit to be interrogated, in relation to the American force in Kentucky. From this place he made his escape with two other Americans; and after thirty days travelling through the wilderness, continually exposed to recapture, had the good fortune to reach the settlements in Kentucky.(1)

(1) Indidents of Border Life, pp. 323-337. Hall's Sketches of the West, Vol. II, pp. 125-129. Marshall's History of Kentucky, Vol. I, pp. 74–77.

COL. JOHN BOWMAN'S EXPEDITION AGAINST THE OHIO INDIANS, AND ITS UNFORTUNATE RESULT-THe surprise AND DEFEAT OF MAJOR RODGERS, THE SLAUGHTER OF HIS MEN, AND THE MIRACULOUS ESCAPE OF CAPT. BENHAM -THE COMBINED BRITISH AND INDIAN EXPEDITION UNDER COLONEL BYRD AGAINST RIDDLE'S AND MARTIN'S FORTS, AND THE CAPTIVITY OF THE GAR. RISONS AND FAMILIES UNDER THEIR PROTECTION-COL, CLARKE'S EXPEDITION AND VICTORY OVER THE INDIANS AT PICKAWA-ESCAPE OF COL. BOONE FROM THE MURDERERS OF HIS BROTHER- CAPTAIN WHITAKER'S SUCCESSFUL CONFLICT WITH THE INDIANS-COL. FLOYD'S DEFEAT-SINGULAR ENCOUN TER OF SAMUEL, JAMES AND ROBERT MCAFEE-SIGNAL DEFEAT OF THE INDIANS AT FORT MCAFEE-THE APPEARANCE OF A LARGE INDIAN FORCE BEFORE BRYANT'S FORT-ITS FAILURE TO CAPTURE IT-THE FATAL BATTLE AT THE BLUE LICKS-THE THIRD EXPEDITION OF COL. CLARKE, AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THE INDIAN TOWNS.

In the year 1779, the insecurity of the settlements south of the Ohio river, the surprise and murder of families by predatory bands of Indians, and the constant danger of attack upon every station, whether fortified or defenceless, induced the pioneers to take measures to carry the war into the enemy's towns, north of the Ohio. They assembled at Harrodsburg, where it was determined to raise a body of volunteers for an expedition against Chillicothe, the chief town of the Shawanese. About two hundred men were raised, and the command given to Colonel JOHN BOWMAN. George M. Badinger was chosen adjutant, and Benjamin Logan, John Holder, James Harrod and John Bulger commanded companies. Many of the best men in the country enrolled themselves as privates.

The expedition left Kentucky in July, crossed the Ohio river, and its march was so well conducted that it appeared before Chillicothe without being discovered by the foe. Having arrived within a short distance of the town in the dusk of the evening, the army halted. Here it was determined to attack the place just before the ensuing day.

The plan of attack was well formed, and showed considerable military skill and caution. The army was divided into two divisions: one was to act under the command of Colonel Bowman in person, and the other under Captain Logan. Captain Logan had orders to take his position on one side of the town, partly surrounding it, while Colonel Bowman was to move to the other side, meet the other division, and give the signal for the assault. Captain Logan, with great promptitude, executed his orders, and the place was half surrounded. But he neither saw nor heard any thing of the Commander-in-chief. As the day light began to appear, Captain Logan ordered his men to conceal themselves

in the grass, and behind such objects as hid them from the view of the town, and anxiously awaited the signal to commence the attack.No signal was given, and it was now day light. The soldiers in shift. ing their places of concealment to avoid exposure, alarmed an Indian dog, the violent barking of which brought out a warrior, who proceeded with caution towards the place, and would have been taken prisoner, had not a soldier fired his gun. The Indian in an instant gave a loud yell, and ran immediately to the town and gave the alarm. Preparations were instantly made for defence; while the party under Captain Logan was near enough to hear the bustle, and to see the women and children escaping to the cover of the woods, by a ridge, which ran between them and the place where Col. Bowman was remaining inactive.

In the mean time the warriors repaired to a strong cabin, and prepared to defend it. The place of concealment was now disclosed, and several shot were discharged from one side and returned by the other, when the party under Captain Logan took possession of the vacated cabins, and commenced the attack upon the Indian citadel. Captain Logan ordered a moveable breast work to be constructed out of the doors and floors of the cabins, for the purpose of pushing it forward as a battery, against the cabin occupied by the Indians. This was already in the course of construction, when Colonel Bowman, who had not moved from his first position, finding that the Indians were on their defence, dispatched a messenger with orders for a retreat. At this time, this order was received with astonishment. Had he moved up his own division, victory would have been sure: and even had he marched home, leaving the division under Captain Logan to contend alone, it is more than probable the Indians would have been driven from their place of defence and routed. And what rendered retreat a cruelty to the brave men under Captain Logan, was, the unavoidable exposure which they must encounter in the open field which surrounded the town. The order for retreat was therefore reluctantly obeyed. The moment they left their cover, the Indians opened upon them a galling fire, being themselves completely sheltered. Then instead of order, a scene unmilitary and mor tifying took place. Some would rush out of a cabin, others would rise from a log, or start from behind some screen, and all run in the utmost disorder, to gain the neighboring wood. At length, after the loss of several lives, the remnant of the invading force was reunited, and a retreat commenced, under the painful reflection that the expedition had failed, without any adequate cause being known. But that was not the nly source of mortification. The Indian warriors, under their chief,

Blackfish, sallied from the town, in pursuit of the discomfitted invaders of their forests and firesides, and continued for some miles, harrrssing the rear of the fugitives, without being checked,-notwithstanding the disparity of their numbers,-there being not more than thirty savages in pursuit.

Colonel Bowman finding himself thus pressed, at length halted his men in a low piece of ground, covered with underwood. A situation more injudiciously chosen, can not well be imagined-since of all others, it most favored the purposes of the Indians. In a few minutes the savages surrounded the troops, and with horrid yells, commenced firing on all sides. The commander seemed to have lost his understanding. He gave no orders to fire-made no attempt to repulse the enemy, but, panic struck, stood as a mark to be shot at. Some of the men fired their pieces, but without any precise object, for the Indians were scattered and hid in the tall grass and underwood. At length Logan, Harrod, Holder, Badinger, and Bulger, put themselves at the head of a few chosen men, mounted on some of the pack horses, and scoured the woods, rushing upon the Indians first in one direction, and then in another, until their Chief, Blackfish, was killed, when the rest fled, and the fugitives were relieved from their further attacks. It was in the evening when this event occurred; and it being reported to the Colonel, he resumed his march, at dark, and taking for his guide a creek, running south into the Ohio, he followed its course all night, and in quiet and safety, reached home with the loss of nine men killed and one wounded. (1)

Notwithstanding this unfortunate affair, Colonel Bowman was said not to be deficient in personal courage or military talents. He was besides highly respected, for his benevolence and civic virtures. His conduct in this expedition was inexplicable, and a subject of mortification and regret.

In the autumn of the same year, (2) a number of boats manned with about seventy men, under the command of Major Rodgers, were ascending the Ohio, and had advanced as far as the mouth of Licking river, when a few Indians were observed standing upon the southern extremity of a sand bar. At the same time a canoe rowed by three others, was in the act of putting off from the Kentucky shore, apparently for the purpose of taking them on board. Major Rodgers instantly moved to the Kentucky shore, landed his men, who were well armed, and cau.

(1) Marshall's History of Kentucky, Vol. I. p. 91, 94.