154 The Winning of the West 



the water on his naked skin, whereat he slipped off 

 his horse, swam to the empty canoe, and got into it. 

 Unhurt he reached the further shore, where he 

 leaped out and caught the horse as it swam to land, 

 mounted it, rifle in hand, turned to yell defiance at 

 his foes, and then vanished in the forest-shrouded 

 wilderness. He left behind him the dead bodies of 

 his three friends, to be washed on the shallows by 

 the turbid flood of the great river. 30 



These are merely some of the recorded incidents 

 which occurred in the single year 1785, in one com 

 paratively small portion of the vast stretch of terri 

 tory which then formed the Indian frontier. Many 

 such occurred on all parts of this frontier in each of 

 the terrible years of Indian warfare. They varied 

 infinitely in detail, but they were monotonously 

 alike in their characteristics of stealthy approach, 

 of sudden onfall, and of butcherly cruelty ; and there 

 was also a terrible sameness in the brutality and 

 ruthlessness with which the whites, as occasion of 

 fered, wreaked their revenge. Generally the In 

 dian war parties were successful, and suffered com 

 paratively little, making their attacks by surprise, 

 and by preference on unarmed men cumbered with 

 women and children. Occasionally they were beaten 



80 De Haas, pp. 283-292. De Haas gathered the facts of 

 these and numerous similar incidents from the pioneers 

 themselves in their old age; doubtless they are often inac 

 curate in detail, but on the whole De Haas has more judg 

 ment and may be better trusted than the other compilers. 

 In the Draper MSS, are volumes of such traditional stories, 

 gathered with no discrimination whatever. 



