\ 



In the Current of the Revolution 171 



\ 



mother, wife, and child; a hired man slep j in the 

 loft. One night eight Indians assailed the house. 

 As they burst in the door Bingaman thrust the 

 women and the child under the bed, his wife being 

 wounded by a shot in the breast. Then having dis- 

 charged his piece he began to beat about at random 

 with the long, heavy rifle. The door swung par- 

 tially to, and in the darkness nothing could be seen. 

 The numbers of the Indians helped them but little, 

 for Bingaman's tremendous strength enabled him 

 to shake himself free whenever grappled. One 

 after another his foes sank under his crushing blows, 

 killed or crippled ; it is said that at last but one was 

 left to flee from the house in terror. The hired man 

 had not dared to come down from the loft, and 

 when Bingaman found his wife wounded he became 

 so enraged that it was with difficulty he could be 

 kept from killing him. 78 



Incidents such as these followed one another in 

 quick succession. They deserve notice less for their 

 own sakes than as examples of the way the West 

 was won; for the land was really conquered not so 

 much by the actual shock of battle between bodies 

 of soldiers, as by the continuous westward move- 

 ment of the armed settlers and the unceasing indi- 



78 It is curious how faithfully, as well as vividly, Cooper 

 has reproduced these incidents. His pictures of the white 

 frontiersmen are generally true to life ; in his most noted In- 

 dian characters he is much less fortunate. But his "Indian 

 John," in the "Pioneers" is one of his best portraits; al- 

 most equal praise can be given to Susquesus in the "Chain- 

 bearers." 



