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                                 TALES,
                         TRADITIONS AND ROMANCE
                                   OF
                                 BORDER
                                  AND
                          REVOLUTIONARY TIMES.


                          BY EDWARD S. ELLIS.

                               NEW YORK:
                    BEADLE AND COMPANY, PUBLISHERS,
                          118 WILLIAM STREET.




        Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1864,
 by BEADLE AND COMPANY, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of
                               the United
             States for the Southern District of New York.




                                PREFACE.


In this volume we offer the reader a combination of two of the most
fascinating qualities which a book can possess. It is almost strictly
historical, and yet as marvelous as the most romantic fiction. The
sketches and incidents here gathered are all authenticated; yet many of
them, in their wonderful interest and pathos, exceed the bounds of
fancy. They belong to two classes: those which are connected with the
Revolution, and those which chronicle the peculiar events of our
Frontier History. While they will absorb the attention of the most
intelligent reader, they are charmingly adapted to attract young people,
who will be both instructed and delighted. Boys will find examples
worthy of emulation, and will learn to appreciate those traits of
character which made the glory and the progress of our young republic;
while girls may gain dignity of mind by contemplating the devotion,
courage and endurance of the women of those days.

An insight will be afforded into the customs of the Indians, and into
the manner of life of the early settlers, whose dangers and
difficulties, privations and calamities, are almost incredible. Many of
the most thrilling events in our national history are herein related,
along with the fearless adventures of our brave pioneers, and the perils
and catastrophes which befell the families of those whose protectors
were absent on the field of battle, or whose cabins failed to find
sufficient defense in the rifles of their owners.

The reader will linger over these pages, thrilled by the consciousness
that the scenes so vividly brought before him are real—a living, abiding
part of our existence as a people. The "storied Rhine" and "classic
Italy" are laid and overlaid thickly with traditions which give a vague
interest to soil, ruin, mountain and sky. We, also, have our
traditions—different in kind, but of wild and marvelous interest—and the
day shall come when the banks of the fair Ohio, the blue Muskingum, the
picturesque Allegany, the noble Mississippi, shall be trodden by
reverent feet, while the thoughts of the traveler speed back to the days
of the lurking red-man and the bold ranger. It is no mean duty of the
chronicler to treasure up the threads of a thousand little facts, and
weave them into a web which shall perpetuate them for the future.

The publishers believe that this volume will not only be a favorite in
the hands of men, young and old, but will have its appropriate place by
the fireside.




                               CONTENTS.


        Abduction of General Wadsworth,                      236
        Anecdotes of an early settler of Kentucky,            61
        Anecdotes of juvenile heroism,                       202
        Anecdotes of Washington,                             111
        A remarkable hunting excursion,                      133
        Big Joe Logston's struggle with an Indian,            69
        Boquet's expedition into Indian territory,           277
        Brady's leap,                                        363
        Brant and the boy,                                    32
        Brave deeds of Logan,                                245
        British atrocities during the Revolution,            340
        Captain Hubbell's adventure on the Ohio,             123
        Captain John Sevier,                                 313
        Captivity of Jonathan Alder,                         270
        Close quarters with a rattlesnake,                   141
        Colonel Horry, of Marion's brigade,                  143
        Davy Crockett's adventure with a cougar,              56
        Deborah Sampson, the maiden warrior,                  82
        Dick Moxon's fight with the deer,                    137
        Downing's remarkable escape from an Indian,          120
        Elerson's twenty-five mile race,                     160
        Ethan Allen, a prisoner of war,                      229
        Execution of Colonel Isaac Hayne,                    335
        Female characters of the Revolution,                 175
        General Dale's adventure,                            310
        Harrison's invasion of Canada and death of Tecumseh, 219
        Heroic death of Cornstalk, sachem of the Shawnees,   252
        Horrible atrocities by savages,                      264
        Horrible cruelties by British troops,                297
        Horsewhipping a tyrant,                              223
        Interesting anecdotes of Mrs. Fisher's courage,      352
        John Minter's bear fight,                             53
        Joseph Bettys' bloody career,                        291
        Major Robert Rogers' adventure,                      303
        Marvelous escape of Weatherford,                     309
        Miss Sherrill's flight to the fort,                  314
        Molly Pitcher at Monmouth,                           172
        Moody, the refugee,                                  286
        Morgan's prayer,                                     100
        Mrs. Austin and the bear,                             48
        Mrs. Slocumb at Moore's Creek,                       347
        Murphy saving the fort,                               18
        Nathan Hale's arrest and execution,                  341
        Proctor's massacre at River Basin,                   212
        Sargeant Jasper's adventures in the British camp,    153
        Sargeant Jasper and the young Creole girl,            88
        Simon Girty's attack on Bryant Station,              317
        Simon Kenton and his Indian torture-ride,              5
        Spirited adventures of a young married couple,       350
        Tecumseh saving the prisoners,                       309
        The Baroness de Reidesel,                            183
        The chieftain's appeal,                              325
        The Grand Tower massacre,                             76
        The implacable governor,                             332
        The Johnson boys killing their captors,              116
        The leap for life,                                   300
        The little sentinel,                                 197
        The mother's trial,                                  242
        The women defending the wagon,                       261
        Thrilling anecdotes of women of the Revolution,       93
        William Kennan's flight from thirty Indians,         165




                             ILLUSTRATIONS.


              SIMON KENTON'S TORTURE-RIDE,              2
              MURPHY SAVING THE FORT,                  25
              BRANT AND YOUNG M'KOWN,                  33
              MRS. AUSTIN AND THE BEAR,                49
              JOE LOGSTON'S ENCOUNTER WITH AN INDIAN,  66
              DEBORAH, THE MAIDEN WARRIOR,             89
              GENERAL MORGAN'S PRAYER,                105
              JOHNSON BOYS KILLING THEIR CAPTORS,     121
              SWEATLAND'S HUNTING ADVENTURE,          130
              COLONEL HORRY'S EXPLOITS,               145
              ELERSON'S TWENTY-FIVE MILE RACE,        161
              MOLLY PITCHER AT MONMOUTH,              177
              THE LITTLE SENTINEL,                    194
              TECUMSEH SAVING THE PRISONERS,          217
              HORSEWHIPPING A TYRANT,                 233
              THE MOTHER'S TRIAL,                     249
              WOMEN DEFENDING THE WAGON,              258
              CAPTIVITY OF JONATHAN ALDER,            273
              MOODY, THE REFUGEE,                     289
              THE LEAP FOR LIFE,                      305
              THE CHIEFTAIN'S APPEAL,                 322
              THE IMPLACABLE GOVERNOR,                337
              MRS. SLOCUMB AT MOORE'S CREEK,          353
              BRADY'S LEAP,                           361

[Illustration:

  Simon Kenton's Torture-Ride—_Page_ 9.
]




                                 TALES,

                         TRADITIONS AND ROMANCE

                                   OF

                    BORDER AND REVOLUTIONARY TIMES.

                       SIMON KENTON.
                       MURPHY SAVING THE FORT.
                       BRANT AND THE BOY.
                       MRS. AUSTIN AND THE BEAR.

                          BEADLE AND COMPANY,
                     NEW YORK: 118 WILLIAM STREET.
                      LONDON: 44 PATERNOSTER ROW.




       Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1863, by
                          BEADLE AND COMPANY,
  In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for
                   the Southern District of New York.




                             SIMON KENTON,
                                AND HIS
                          INDIAN TORTURE-RIDE.


Foremost among the wild and terrific scenes which arise before our
startled eyes when we turn the pages of border warfare, is the ride of
Simon Kenton—not that the cruelty of its devisers was so atrocious, nor
the final results so dreadful, as in many other instances; but the
novelty, the unique savageness of the affair, strikes upon the
imagination, as if it were one of those thrilling stories related of
ages and people which never were, instead of an event that actually
occurred to one of our own countrymen in one of our own territories.

In the early light of morning breaking through the trees which surround
them, a group of Indians are preparing to resume their march, after a
night of repose. They have with them a solitary prisoner. Corraled about
them are numbers of horses, the recovery of which has been the object of
the expedition. Before these are released and the day's march resumed,
the prisoner must be disposed of. While his captors are deciding this
important matter, we will discover who he is and what has brought him
into his present state.

About the first of September, 1778, Simon Kenton—the friend and younger
coadjutor of Boone, who had been with the latter for some time at
Boonesborough Station, employed in protecting the surrounding country,
and engaging in occasional skirmishes with the Indians—becoming tired of
a temporary inactivity which his habits of life rendered insupportable,
determined to have another adventure with the Indians. For this purpose
he associated with Alex. Montgomery and George Clark, to go on an
expedition for stealing horses from the Shawnees.

The three brave scouts reached old Chilicothe without meeting with any
thing exciting. There they fell in with a drove of Indian horses,
feeding on the rich prairie, and securing seven of the drove, started on
their return. Reaching the Ohio, they found the river lashed into fury
by a hurricane, and the horses refused to cross. Here was an
unlooked-for dilemma. It was evening; they felt sure of being pursued;
no time was to be lost. As the only resource, they rode