There were heaps of earth also, which, being dug open, proved to be Indian graves, containing bows and flint-headed spears and arrows; for the Indians buried the dead warrior's weapons along with him.
In 1636, and the following year, there was the most dreadful war that had yet occurred between the Indians and the English.
The immense droves of horses owned by the Indians consumed the herbage of the surrounding hills; while to drive them to any distant pasturage, in a neighborhood abounding with lurking and deadly enemies, would be to endanger the loss both of man and beast.
One object of Captain Bonneville in wintering among these Indians was to procure a supply of horses against the spring.
This promising beginning was soon overcast with a cloud of adversity; for upon the tenth day of October, the rear of our company was attacked by a number of Indians, who killed six, and wounded one man.
Soon after I returned home, I was ordered to take the command of three garrisons during the campaign, which Governor Dunmore carried on against the Shawanese Indians: After the conclusion of which, the Militia was discharged from each garrrison, and I being relieved from my post, was solicited by a number of North-Carolina gentlemen, that were about purchasing the lands lying on the S.
The
Indians, as I saw on looking closer, had small hand-drums slung in front of them.
On the way we passed the ruins of some fine "estancias," which a few years since had been destroyed by the
Indians. They withstood several attacks.
As the valuable furs soon became scarce in the neighborhood of the settlements, the
Indians of the vicinity were stimulated to take a wider range in their hunting expeditions; they were generally accompanied on these expeditions by some of the traders or their dependents, who shared in the toils and perils of the chase, and at the same time made themselves acquainted with the best hunting and trapping grounds, and with the remote tribes, whom they encouraged to bring their peltries to the settlements.
But the young inventor quickly elevated the muzzle, and the deadly missile went hissing through the air over the head of a native
Indian who, at that moment, stepped from the bush.
Still there is so much obscurity in the
Indian traditions, and so much confusion in the
Indian names, as to render some explanation useful.
"Sire," returned the
Indian, "it is not of his outward form that I would speak, but of the use that I can make of him.