The Indian Wars, 1784-1787 147 



Indian villages near the lakes. They traveled fast, 

 and mercilessly tomahawked the old people, the 

 young children, and the women with child, as soon 

 as their strength failed under the strain of the 

 toil and hardship and terror. When they had 

 reached their villages they usually burned some of 

 their captives and made slaves of the others, the 

 women being treated as the concubines of their cap 

 tors, and the children adopted by the families who 

 wished them. Of the captives a few might fall into 

 the hands of friendly traders, or of the British offi 

 cers at Detroit ; a few might escape, or be ransomed 

 by their kinsfolk, or be surrendered in consequence 

 of some treaty. The others succumbed to the perils 

 of their new life, or gradually sank into a state of 

 stolid savagery. 



Naturally the ordinary Indian foray was directed 

 against the settlements themselves; and of course 

 the settlements of the frontier, as it continually 

 shifted westward, were those which bore the brunt 

 of the attack and served as a shield for the more 

 thickly peopled and peaceful region behind. Oc 

 casionally a big war party of a hundred warriors 

 or over would come prepared for a stroke against 

 some good-sized village or fort; but, as a rule, the 

 Indians came in small bands, numbering from a 

 couple to a dozen or score of individuals. Entirely 

 unencumbered by baggage or by impediments of any 

 kind, such a band lurked through the woods, leav 

 ing no trail, camping wherever night happened to 

 overtake it, and traveling whithersoever it wished. 



