captor, a boy but sixteen years of age, of course from that time made him a hero, one whose counsel was sought by men of riper years and more experience.

"The news of this daring adventure very soon made him the man of the frontier, eminently qualified as a leader in the spy department, in which position he and his brother John rendered such important services to the then western country, until Lewis, feeling himself deeply wounded by the treatment of that country for which he had so often risked his life, and for which he had rendered such great services, left the northern frontier for the Spanish province of Louisiana. The many hazards and adventures of which Lewis Wetzel was the hero, during his service in the spy department, would fill a volume, and could not be abridged, had I the material arranged into an ordinary letter. And as most, if not all of his western adventures, have been collected and given to the public by others better able to perform the task, and as my object is only to embody the outlines of the life of one of the daring spirits of the early pioneers of our own land, I pass over all that interesting, and to the frontiers valuable, part of his service.

"About the year 1790, Wetzel being on what was then called a scout, in what is now the State of Ohio, killed and scalped an Indian warrior on the Tuscarawas River, who, it was claimed by recent negotiations at Fort Harmar, was protected from harm from our spies and others employed in our defence. The Indians made bitter complaints to the commandants of our forts and garrisons, and insisted that unless Wetzel was punished they would again turn loose their horde of warriors. Col. Harmar could not do otherwise than offer a reward for the arrest of Wetzel. He accordingly offered, with great reluctance, a reward of two hundred dollars for the arrest of a man who had spent his life in the woods, standing as a bulwark between the deadly weapon of the barbarian and the struggling settlements of the Christian frontier; a name that was dear to every man, woman and child on the whole line of western settlements; one whose deeds of daring and adventure were taught to the children in their earliest lispings, and whose achievements were to fill the brightest page in the history of their early and desperate struggles. To place a price on a man as a criminal, who had made such sacrifices, of course met with bitter denunciation from all who could appreciate his eminent services: particularly so when they considered Wetzel guilty of nothing criminal whatever. True, he had captured a warrior in the woods, at a time and under circumstances when he (Wetzel) had good reason to believe the warrior was attempting his life; he was out-generaled by this hero of the forest and himself made a victim to his unconquered adversary,—an Indian that belonged to a warlike tribe; a tribe that had committed numerous murders and other depredations upon the very settlement in which lived the aged father and mother of the

daring Wetzel. Besides all this, there was good reason to believe this identical warrior had been concerned in the very outrages alluded to. That any white man would attempt to arrest him, no one believed, and that any red man could, the friends of Wetzel did not fear. To avoid the constant clamor of the Indians for the arrest of Wetzel, he was advised by his friends to leave for a time, until the feeling on the part of the Indians should subside. Wetzel accordingly, for the last time, left the humble frontier abode of his venerable parents, and the place where he had played many a tragic scene where life was the stake; not, however, to arrest the merciless savage on his mission of blood, but to avoid the action of his own country which he had so faithfully served. He proceeded to the vicinity of Cincinnati, where he engaged in the service of the country as a spy, going where commanded, and returning when his mission was performed. He was often heard to say that no one would ever attempt his arrest because he had killed an Indian, but that the love of the reward might find some one heartless enough to, Judas like, sacrifice him for the money. Against the danger of arrest he doubtless felt secure. In his security, however, he was not safe. While he was enjoying the confidence and receiving the admiration of all the people of the west, Col. Parks was ordered to remove with two hundred men from Louisville to Fort Pitt. He stopped at Fort Washington (Cincinnati) with his keel-boats, in which he was transporting his troops. Wetzel was there, and from a regard for his duty, or some other cause, he ordered a file of his men to arrest Wetzel, which, after a violent opposition, they succeeded in doing, and he was placed in irons and dragged on board the boats. The people of Cincinnati made every exertion to procure his release. But to the efforts and appeals of the people in behalf of Wetzel, Col. Parks was immovable, and with a stoic coldness, informed them that Wetzel must be delivered to the officers of justice. Finding that nothing but force could procure his release, they, during the night, rallied the entire force on both sides of the river, and at the dawn of day next morning, five hundred strong men, under arms, marched to the boats and peremptorily demanded the release of Wetzel. Parks at first refused, but he was informed by their leader that if he did not deliver Wetzel in ten minutes he would sink his boats and take Wetzel by force. The ferocious spirit of the people, and the determination of their leader, compelled Parks to knock the irons off of Wetzel and surrender him to his friends.

"At this conduct of his countrymen, Wetzel was deeply mortified, and to avoid what he called the persecution of his own people, he declared his determination of immediately leaving the country for ever. Accordingly he left, the first opportunity, for the Spanish province of Louisiana. He stopped at Natchez, and at once engaged in his favorite business of frontier service, and soon became a general favorite with the settlers. In his new

home, Wetzel appeared to have every thing to make it comfortable, and the change from his native to his adopted country appeared a happy one. But the smooth current of his life was doomed soon again to be ruffled, and his meridian sun again obscured by the clouds of trouble.

Wetzel was an unlettered man, and his whole life proved his character of unbending integrity. Placing no value upon money, none believed that he would do a dishonest act for mere gain. But notwithstanding his character and the circumstances of his life, he was arrested for counterfeiting the coin of the king.

"A man by the name of Piatt, from near Pittsburgh, who had for some cause sought refuge in Louisiana, was the accuser of poor Wetzel. Whether he was actuated by motives of malice, self-protection, or other cause, is, and perhaps ever will be, locked up in the secrets of the past. That an unlettered man, like Wetzel, could counterfeit, was he ever so willing, was preposterous. Besides, all who knew him were confident he would not do it if he could. But, upon the testimony of Piatt, he was convicted and sentenced to the calaboose at New Orleans.

"The news of Wetzel's misfortunes soon reached the upper country, and the first office of the western boatman, on reaching New Orleans, was to visit the prison of poor Wetzel and offer whatever was in his power for his comfort and relief. Petition after petition was sent to the Spanish Governor, praying for his release, but without effect. Col. Richard Brown, and the Hon. F. McGuire, both distinguished men at that day in Western Virginia, upon their own personal responsibility, at different times, offered the Governor two thousand dollars for his release. The Governor, placing it on the grounds of having no discretion in the matter, declined a compliance with their request; expressing, at the same time, a desire for Wetzel's relief, but refusing a pardon, on the grounds that his sovereign required the judgments of his majesty's courts executed to the letter.

"In that dark and loathsome prison, denied of all the comforts of life, even the light of heaven, did the poor sufferer drag out four years and a half of his mortal existence, with no other inmates than the meanest malefactors that were ever incarcerated for crime. Hope of obtaining his liberty had fled. His friends that had previously made such disinterested and noble efforts for his relief, had long since given over in despair, or regarded him as having fell a victim to his confinement, and by that unwelcome monster been released from his chains. Wetzel regarded himself, for the balance of his days, as a permanent fixture to the damp floor of his prison, and almost ceased to pray for liberty.

"While Wetzel was counting with fevered anxiety every day as it passed, as bringing him nearer the day of his deliverance from his miserable and loathsome dungeon 'to that house not made with hands,' the light of hope suddenly broke upon the solitude of his cell. Previous to this time, there

existed in Western Pennsylvania, what was familiarly known as the Whisky Insurrection. One of the leaders of the insurgents was General Bradford of Pennsylvania, who was prosecuted for resisting the execution of the laws, and to avoid which he fled to Louisiana. Bradford was a man of education, talents, and fine address. He claimed the protection of the Spanish Governor, and soon became a favorite at his court. He soon

learned the condition of Wetzel. He knew his former character and great services, and deeply sympathized with him in his misfortunes. Bradford immediately set himself about procuring the release of his old friend and countryman from that loathsome prison house in which he was dying by the inch. He approached the Governor in person, in behalf of Wetzel. He represented his services, his sufferings, and former good character, and soon found that the kind nature of the Governor, too, sympathized with the unfortunate prisoner in his sufferings. Bradford's hopes of success soon ripened into reality, and through him Wetzel once more enjoyed his liberty.

"In those days a story was current, concerning the manner in which Bradford effected the release of Wetzel, that savored strongly of the marvelous. The Governor, it was said, through fear of his sovereign, refused to exercise the pardoning power, although he very much desired that Wetzel should be discharged from imprisonment; and to supply the want of unbiassed power, resort was had to stratagem. The plan was briefly this: Wetzel was to feign himself sick; a report was to be put in circulation that he had died; a coffin-maker and undertaker was to be called on. His body was coffined and carried out of the prison and delivered to his friends, amongst whom was Bradford, and by them carried out of the city, where the dead man was taken alive out of the coffin and it sunk in the Mississippi. Wetzel was conveyed to Natchez, and was taken into the family of a relative of his, who was a wealthy planter near that place. Whether this story was true or not, could make but little difference to the unfortunate victim of circumstances; but the facts, about which there is no dispute, give it the color of probability. Certain it was that Wetzel was taken from prison to Natchez, where he lived for a number of years in the family of a Mr. Sicks, a cousin of Wetzel's. His long confinement in the damp and unhealthy prison had undermined his constitution and rendered him unfit for his former vocation of frontier service. From long inactivity, his limbs had grown stiff and clumsy; his stalwart arms had lost their strength, and his whole system lacked the physical power to qualify him for the woods. He was kindly treated and cared for by his friends, working when it suited him and playing when he pleased.

"After the purchase of Louisiana by the United States, Sicks removed on to the Brasos, in Texas, taking Wetzel with him. He remained a member of the family of his friend for a number of years, gradually yielding

to the encroachments of disease, until his powerful form could resist no longer, when he died. On the banks of the Brasos, in the yet far distant wilderness, sleeps, without mark or monument, the ashes of the intrepid scout, the fearless and gallant spy. Who can listen to the winds as they moan among the branches that overhang his grave, and reflect upon the services, persecutions and sufferings of the fearless spirit that once animated the entombed remains, without shedding a tear of sympathy for the name of LEWIS WETZEL?

"Wetzel never could forget the wrongs he had suffered from his own country and countrymen. Piatt, in particular, he denounced as a villain. Inasmuch as he (Piatt) is one of the prominent characters mentioned in this letter, a brief notice of his career and end might, by the curious, be desirable.

"After the conviction of Wetzel, Piatt was arrested for killing an Indian on Red River, was tried, convicted, and placed in the calaboose at New Orleans, where he remained nine years, and was then taken out and hung.

"I have thus given you all the facts within my knowledge, not already before the public. I regret my inability to fix dates, but I have given certain historical events, about the date of which there is no dispute, from which to infer the date of the events mentioned in the letter.

"Yours, truly, &c.,

"E. R. ECKLEY."

X
(Page 411.)

SURRENDER OF THE MORAVIAN TRACT TO THE UNITED STATES. Articles of agreement made and concluded at Gnadenhütten, in the county of Tuscarawas, and State of Ohio, between Lewis Cass, on the one part, of the United States, being thereto specially authorized by the President of the United States, and Lewis D. Schweinitz, on the part of the Society of the United Brethren for propagating the Gospel among the Heathen, being thereto specially authorized by the said Society.

I. The said Society agree to retrocede to the United States the three tracts of land, lying on the Muskingum River, in the county of Tuscarawas, and State of Ohio, containing each four thousand acres; which said tracts of land were granted to the said Society by patent from the United States, on the 24th day of February, 1798, for certain purposes therein expressed, which will more fully appear by reference to the said patent, and to the act of Congress of June 1st, 1796, entitled "An act regulating the grants of land appropriated for military services, and for the Society of the United Breth