With George Washington into the wilderness

by Edwin L. Sabin

Next to him there was Scarouady, or Beyond-the-sky, a chief and orator of the Oneida Mingos. In the Delaware tongue his name was Mona-cath-u-atha, which was the name given to the Half-King also; but he was better known as Scarouady. The English traders called him “Scaddy.”

Anybody who looked upon Scarouady saw a warrior and chief indeed. He was over six feet tall, and straight and sinewy and active. Already he had fought in more than twenty-five battles, so that his leggins and his hunting shirt were fringed with scalp hair. His head was shaven except for the long braided scalp lock, to be taken by the hand that could take it; the chief’s sign, a tail plume of the bald eagle, was thrust through the base of the scalp lock, and the braid was decorated with blue-jay feathers.

Upon his broad chest a tomahawk—the warrior sign—had been tattooed in blue; and the hunter sign, of bow and arrow, had been tattooed upon either cheek.

With his light coppery skin, his high forehead, a large, straight nose set between his wide cheek bones, his black eyes and his firm, thin lips, this was the brave Scarouady, friend to the English and to Robert the Hunter.

Then there was White Thunder or Belt of Wampum, who had a pretty daughter named Bright Lightning; and old Juskakaka or Green Grasshopper, whom the English called “Little Billy;” and Guyasuta or Standing Cross, a famous young warrior; and Aroas or Silver Heels, another Seneca warrior; and other valiant men, all of whom regarded Tanacharison and Scarouady as their leaders.

Here to Logstown came the English traders: John Fraser on his way to his trading house in the Seneca and Delaware town of Venango, sixty miles northward, where he stored his goods and made guns to sell; and John Davidson of the Virginia Long Knives, and Captain George Croghan of Pennsylvania of the east; and others, driving their pack horses over the mountains and crossing the river in wooden canoes, to stay at Logstown and to trade beads, paint, powder, lead, blankets and rum for furs.

And here came Captain Andrew Montour, who was part Huron and part Seneca and part white, to talk for the Governor of Pennsylvania; and once in a long time the merry Captain Joncaire, half Seneca, from the French of Canada. These two were gaily dressed, and spoke the Iroquois tongue, and were accounted great men.

So that with the Indians in paint, blankets and moccasins, and the traders in whiskers, fur caps and deer-hide shirts, and speech makers like Captains Montour and Joncaire, and the women, children and dogs, Logstown beside the broad, blue Ohio flowing amid forest and meadow, rich in deer, bear and wild turkey, was a stirring town.

Now this summer Juskakaka and White Thunder with speech belts were sent to the council to be held with the English at Albany of New York in the country of the Iroquois council fire.

When they two returned they reported that the French of Canada were getting ready to seize the Ohio River. The Iroquois spies were certain of this, and so were the English.