During my sojourn of two months at Chicago, our mother often entertained me with stories of her early life and adventures. The following is her history of her captivity among the Senecas, which I have put in the form of a tale, although without the slightest variation from the facts as I received them from her lips, and those of her sister, Mrs. William Forsyth, of Sandwich (C. W.), the little Maggie of the story.
THE CAPTIVES
It is well known that previous to the war of the Revolution, the whole of the western portion of Pennsylvania was inhabited chiefly by different Indian tribes. Of these, the Delawares were the friends of the whites, and after the commencement of the great struggle, took part with the United States. The Iroquois, on the contrary, were the friends and allies of the mother country.
Very few white settlers had ventured beyond the Susquehannah. The numerous roving bands of Shawanoes, Nanticokes, &c., although sometimes professing friendship with the Americans, and acting in concert with the Delawares or Lenapé as allies, at others suffered themselves to be seduced by their neighbors, the Iroquois, to show a most sanguinary spirit of hostility.
For this reason, the life of the inhabitants of the frontier was one of constant peril and alarm. Many a scene of dismal barbarity was enacted, as the history of the times testifies, and even those who felt themselves in some measure protected by their immediate neighbors, the Delawares, never lost sight of the caution required by their exposed situation.
The vicinity of the military garrison at Pittsburgh, or Fort Pitt, as it was then called, gave additional security to those who had pushed further west, among the fertile valleys of the Alleghany and Monongahela. Among these were the family of Mr. Lytle, who, about two years previous to the opening of our story, had removed from Path Valley, near Carlisle, and settled himself on the banks of Plum River, a tributary of the Alleghany. Here, with his wife and five children, he had continued to live in comfort and security, undisturbed by any hostile visit, and only annoyed by occasional false alarms from his more timorous neighbors, who having had more experience in frontier life, were prone to anticipate evil, as well as to magnify every appearance of danger.