254 Ten Days in Ohio. 



garrison. During the Indian war in 1794, being tired of confine- 

 ment, he determined to have a hunt by himself, and again breathe 

 freely in the forests. Knowing from long experience that the Indians, 

 almost invariably, confine themselves to the vicinity of their towns 

 during the winter months, he pushed immediately for their best hunt- 

 ing grounds. Taking his canoe, rifle, traps, he. he late in Novem- 

 ber ascended the Scioto river, to near the spot where the town of 

 Chilicolhe now stands ; being ten or fifteen miles from the then In- 

 dian Chilicothe. Here he built himself a bark hut, and spent the 

 winter with all that peculiar enjoyment which is known only to the 

 breast of " a backwoods hunter." He had been very successful in the 

 chase, and had loaded his canoe with the hams of the Bear, the 

 Elk and the Deer ; to which he had added numerous, packages of 

 their skins, with those of the more valued Beaver — with all the pre- 

 caution of an experienced warrior in an enemies country, he had se- 

 curely fastened his well laden canoe, several miles below, behind 

 the willows which then bordered the shores of the Scioto. The 

 melting of the snow, the swelling buds of the sugar tree, and above 

 all the flight of the wild geese on their annual northern tour reminded 

 him that it was time to depart. He had cooked his last meal in his 

 solitary hut, and was sitting on a fallen tree in front of it, examining 

 the priming and lock of his rifle ; the sun had just risen, when look- 

 ing up the bottom, he saw a large Indian examining with minute at- 

 tention the tracks of his mockasins, made as he returned in the eve- 

 ning to his camp. While hunting in the direction of the Indian town, 

 the day before, his acute and practised ear had distinguished the re- 

 port of an Indian rifle at a remote distance. Fleehart immediately 

 stepped behind a tree, and waited until the Indian had approached 

 within the sure range of his shot. He then fired, and the Indian 

 with a yell and a bound, fell to the earth. The scalping knife had 

 commenced its operation, but as he was not quite dead, he desisted, 

 and fell to cutting loose some of the silver bands with which his arms 

 were profusely ornamented,* and tucked them into the folds of his 



* In excavating the Ohio canal not far from the scene of Fleehart's adventure, 

 the skeleton of an Indian vras found with several broad silver bands on the bones 

 of his arms. Two of them are now in my collection of antiquities. They appear 

 to be of French manufacture, as one of them is ornamented with the "Fleurde lis" 

 engraved on its front. They are about three inches wide and six long, with perfo- 

 rations at the end, for thongs to confine them on the aims. They weigh two and a 

 half ounces — as Fleehart striped off only a part of the bands, it is more than probable 

 that this was the identical Indian. 



