Outdoor Life and Indian Stories / Making open air life attractive to young Americans by telling them all about woodcraft, signs and signaling, the stars, fishing, camping, camp cooking, how to tie knots and how to make fire without matches, and many other fascinating open air pursuits. Also, stories of noted hunters and scouts, great indians and warriors, including Daniel Boone, Kit Carson, General Custer, Pontiac, Tecumseh, King Philip, Black Hawk, Brandt, Sitting Bull, and a host of others whose names are famous; all of them true and interesting

by Edward Sylvester Ellis

CHAPTER IX

A MIGHTY MINGO CHIEFTAIN

LOGAN, THE ORATOR AND WARRIOR

HE Mingo chieftain known as Logan, had a fame which reached the other side of the Atlantic; he was the author of perhaps the best known speech ever delivered by one of his race, and his life was marked by a pathos that must touch every heart.

Logan was a chief like his father, but lived most of his life in the West, probably at Sandusky, or on a branch of the Scioto. A number of his warriors made their homes at these places. Why, if this chief was an Iroquois, is he called a Mingo? The explanation lies in the fact that the two words mean the same. The Iroquois are sometimes spoken of as the Mingoes, Menwes or Maquas.

Logan, although one of the bravest of men, always loved peace above war. Throughout the dark years before and during the plotting of Pontiac, he took no part except that of peacemaker. In time he became a most bitter enemy of the white race and if ever an Indian had good reason for such enmity, he was Logan.

In the spring of 1774, several white explorers in the Ohio country said they had been robbed by Indians of a number of horses, though it is by no means certain that such was the fact, or that, if the theft took place, that the thieves were not white men. Be that as it may, the explorers claimed that the Indians should be taught a lesson that would prevent any more outrages of that nature.

The infamous Colonel Michael Cresap gathered a party of men as evil as himself, the members coming together on the site of the present city of Wheeling, West Virginia. Learning that some Indians were near at hand, Cresap made ready to attack them. The question of their guilt or innocence was of no concern to him. He knew he had enough men to defeat the small company, and that was all he cared to know before acting.

As if to help in the fearful crime, a canoe was seen coming from the other shore. It contained one warrior and several women and children. Hiding themselves, Cresap and his companions waited till the party had landed, and then each picked out his victim. When the guns were fired, not a single man, woman or child escaped. All these people belonged to the family of Logan, known far and near as the "friend of the white man."