In the campaign that followed, two armies were marched from different points into the heart of the Indian country. Colonel Bradstreet, on the north, passed up the lakes, and penetrated the region beyond Detroit, while on the south Colonel Bouquet advanced from Fort Pitt into the Delaware and Shawnee settlements of the Ohio Valley. The Indians were completely overawed. Bouquet compelled them to sue for peace, and to restore all the captives that had been taken from time to time during their wars with the whites.
The return of these captives, many of whom were supposed to be dead, and the reunion of husbands and wives, parents and children, and brothers and sisters, presented a scene of thrilling interest. Some were overjoyed at regaining their lost ones; others were heartbroken on learning the sad fate of those dear to them. What a pang pierced that mother’s breast who recognized her child only to find it clinging the more closely to its Indian mother, her own claims wholly forgotten!
Some of the children had lost all recollection of their former home, and screamed and resisted when handed over to their relatives. Some of the young women had married Indian husbands, and, with their children, were unwilling to return to the settlements. Indeed, several of them had become so strongly attached to their Indian homes and mode of life that after returning to their homes they made their escape and returned to their husbands’ wigwams.
Even the Indians, who are educated to repress all outward signs of emotion, could not wholly conceal their sorrow at parting with their adopted relatives and friends. Cruel as the Indian is in his warfare, to his captives who have been adopted into his tribe he is uniformly kind, making no distinction between them and those of his own race. To those now restored they offered furs and choice articles of food, and even begged leave to follow the army home, that they might hunt for the captives, and supply them with better food than that furnished to the soldiers. Indian women filled the camp with their wailing and lamentation both night and day.
One old woman sought her daughter, who had been carried off nine years before. She discovered her, but the girl, who had almost forgotten her native tongue, did not recognize her, and the mother bitterly complained that the child she had so often sung to sleep had forgotten her in her old age. Bouquet, whose humane instincts had been deeply touched by this scene, suggested an experiment. “Sing the song you used to sing to her when a child,” said he. The mother sang. The girl’s attention was instantly fixed. A flood of tears proclaimed the awakened memories, and the long-lost child was restored to the mother’s arms.
THE END
STRANGE STORIES FROM HISTORY
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AMERICAN HISTORICAL FICTION FOR BOYS AND GIRLS
These books tell thrilling stories of the personal life and heroic deeds of Americans in the great struggles of Colonial times, the Revolution, 1812, and 1861, which have welded together and built up the American nation. They are full of a close human interest and a dramatic quality which cannot be imparted in compact histories, although these tales are usually founded upon actual historical events. They enlist and hold the attention of readers, and they also clear the historical perspective and convey lessons in courage and patriotism. Mr. George Cary Eggleston’s successful “Strange Stories from History” deals in part with heroes of other nations, but these books, while similar to that in many respects, tell of those whose gallant deeds gave us the America of to-day.