In the fight she had observed one of the officers fall, perhaps her husband. She inquired as to Maj. Heald's fate, saying she was the white captain's squaw. They told her he was wounded & a prisoner to another band, & had not yet marched away. She then told them she wanted to see him & share his fate in company with him. They told her that she and her husband belonged to different parties, and she could not go with him. She insisted that she must see him or die. A squaw who had dressed her wounds now addressed her as Epi-con-yare, and she now frankly acknowledged the relationship, and said if she had been a man she would have fought as long as a red skin could have been found.
Now Jean Baptist Chandonnis made quite a speech to the Indians of the band who had her, appealing to them in their native language, saying that she was an Ep-i-con-yare, that she was not only related to a brave man, but was the wife of a brave officer, and had proved herself a brave & spirited woman, and ought to be permitted to see her husband, and closed with a noble appeal in her behalf. He obtained their promise to remain until he could go and see the Indian who had Captain Heald as his prisoner. He at once repaired to the other camp & informed [Captain Heald] about his wife; & prevailed on his Indian captor to mount him on a poney, though wounded, & conveyed him to where his wife was, when an affecting meeting took place. The good-hearted Chandonnis then tried to effect a trade, an arrangement by which the two prisoners should be kept together. At length Chandonnis purchased Mrs. Heald from her captor for an old mule captured there and a bottle of whiskey, and had her placed with her husband.
In the fight the Indians got in the rear & were killing sick soldiers, women and children when Heald & party commenced falling back, but they were overpowered, killed and taken. Capt. Heald also captured, all at last, in a hand-to-hand fight, all mixed up, whites & Indians.
The Indians used guns, spears, bows & arrows, in the fight.
Thinks the prisoners, Mr. & Mrs. Heald, were some thirty days reaching Mackinaw where Capt. Heald, being a mason, was befriended by the British officer in command there, one of the fraternity, & was treated very kindly, who offered to loan him any amount of money, tendering him his pocketbook even; adding that if he ever reached home he could return it—if not it would all be right.
It was believed by Mrs. Heald that it was her spirited conduct that induced the Indians to spare her & her husband, both badly wounded, & in such condition would be troublesome & cumbersome.
Mrs. Heald saw & read Mrs. Kinzie's Waubun & said it was exaggerated & incorrect in its relation of the Chicago massacre. Don't know the name of the Indian who took Capt. Heald.
Mrs. Heald said the Indians were not drunk.
Mr. D. Heald thinks the friendly Miamis who came with Wells to escort in the troops were what Maj. Heald speaks of as militia [which I doubt, as it seems that the friendly Indians took no part in the fight, whereas some of the "militia" were killed, as Heald's report shows. L.C.D.]
Thinks Wells painted himself as much to disguise his person as for anything else. Mrs. Heald said that she did not see the incident of Mrs. Helm (if it was her) being sent by her captor into the edge of the lake for safety.