St. Clair and Wayne 395 



and murder, did terrible deeds, and at times suffered 

 terrible fates in return, when some untoward chance 

 threw them in the way of the grim border ven 

 geance. The books of the old annalists are filled 

 with tales of disaster and retribution, of horrible 

 suffering and of fierce prowess. Countless stories 

 are told of heroic fight and panic rout ; of midnight 

 assault on lonely cabins, and ambush of heavy-laden 

 immigrant scows; of the deaths of brave men and 

 cowards, and the dreadful butchery of women and 

 children; of bloody raid and revengeful counter 

 stroke. Sometimes a band of painted marauders 

 would kill family after family, without suffering 

 any loss, would capture boat after boat without ef 

 fective resistance from the immigrants, paralyzed 

 by panic fright, and would finally escape unmo 

 lested, or beat off with ease a possibly larger party of 

 pursuers, who happened to be ill led, or to be men 

 with little training in wilderness warfare. 



At other times all this might be reversed. A 

 cabin might be defended with such maddened cour 

 age by some stout rifleman, fighting for his cower 

 ing wife and children, that a score of savages would 

 recoil baffled, leaving many of their number dead. 

 A boat's crew of resolute men might beat back, with 

 heavy loss, an over-eager onslaught of Indians in 

 canoes, or push their slow, unwieldy craft from 

 shore under a rain of rifle-balls, while the wounded 

 oarsmen strained at the bloody handles of the sweeps, 

 and the men who did not row gave shot for shot, 

 firing at the flame tongues in the dark woods. A 



