and others across the field. They were hotly pursued by the enemy, who continued to yell and fire upon them. The older of the two mothers who had gone out, recollecting in her flight that the younger, a small and feeble woman, was burdened with her child, turned back in the face of the enemy, they firing and yelling hideously, took the child from its almost exhausted mother, and ran with it to the fort, a distance of three hundred yards. During the chase she was twice shot at with rifles, when the enemy was so near that the powder burnt her, and one arrow passed through her sleeve, but she escaped uninjured. The young woman, who was wounded, almost reached the place of safety when she sunk, and her pursuer, who had the hardihood to attempt to scalp her, was killed by a bullet from the fort. *

"When devoid of hope, that oasis amid the arid of desert life, man is a being, when placed in dangers, who is to be dreaded. When hope has fled, despair usurps its place, and none despair till they behold death, as it were, staring them in the face; and when life, with all its beautiful shades and colors is bleached, with the bitterness of approaching death, 'tis then man becomes desperate; the most timid have then done deeds of daring which were almost incredible. I may say that hope had almost forsaken me, when I beheld six blood-thirsty Indians, with loaded guns, and triggers cocked, waiting for a sight to shoot us dead. From my companion's appearance, I should judge his feelings were analogous to my own. I looked at him but once when behind a log, but the expression of his face was so indelibly impressed upon my mind, that as long as memory lasts, those stern and determined features can never pass from it. His face was pale, but not occasioned by fear, for Girty never felt that sensation. His lips were firmly compressed, till the blood was forced from them, and they were of an ashy paleness. The large veins of his dark face were swollen till ready to burst, and I almost imagined I could see the fire sparkling from his dark eyes, as he cast them on me; and, whispering through his clenched fist, bade me 'die like a man, and not like a captive wolf.'

"We had now become desperate, and as the hope of life had fled, we determined to die like warriors We now resolved as a last chance to employ a deception, which has since saved many lives. Girty took his cap, which was made of raccoon-skin, and slowly raised it above the log; the deception was not observed, for six shots were immediately fired at it, and two balls passed through it. I fired, and an Indian fell; but Girty reserved his fire, lest the enemy should rush up with their tomahawks. This kept them back, for none appeared willing to sacrifice his life for the benefit of the rest We now arose, and took our stand between two trees, where, as a faint glimmer of hope beamed on us, we determined to conquer or die. A silence ensued, only to be broken by the death knell of one human being. One of the Indians, bolder than the rest, left his hiding place, and took a circuitous route, in order to attack us in the rear, but Girty's unerring aim prevented the Indian from running but a few steps, when he fell dead.

* Dr. Drake.

"We had now four Indians to contend against, who were experienced marksmen, so we could not yet call our scalps our own; but the skirinish was unexpectedly decided; as if by natural consent, two of the savages left their trees, and started on the same fatal route, and with the same intention of attacking us in the rear, which their comrade had so ineffectually tried. Here, success, which had followed in our path from the moment of starting, again visited us; although the Indians were running, we killed them both. Indians, in all their skirmishes, are exceedingly politic; they never waste a load of powder, and particularly when their own lives are in jeopardy. When fighting against numbers inferior to their own, their usual practice is to deliver their fire, and finish the destructive work with their tomahawks; but this time they showed an uncommon neglect of their usual policy. Two Indians were yet remaining, who could have rushed upon us and shot us down, but by some strange infatuation, they sprang from their hiding-places, and leaping into the pawpaw thicket, bounded off, yelling most demoniacally, leaving four of their comrades upon the ground. We loaded our guns and walked to the fallen Indians, but one fellow, who was shot through the hip, suddenly arose in a sitting posture, and fired his gun so quick that I could not get out of the range of his shot; the ball passed so near me as to tear away my bullet pouch, and scatter its contents upon the ground. Girty sprang upon him like a hungry panther, and with one blow of his fist laid him upon the ground. Whether he was knocked dead, or animation only suspended, I cannot say; but if the latter was the case, he undoubtedly found himself minus a scalp. The others were dead, and we took their scalps, that we might gaze upon them while speaking or thinking of my family. We hurried on our journey, and soon came to the track of the hurricane, which, although not over fifty yards wide, required at least one hour's hard labor to cross. We walked briskly on, when a large buck passed a few yards ahead of us; this temptation was irresistible; I fired at it, and it fell bounding about one hundred yards. While Girty skinned it, I prowled around within sight, that I might anticipate any savage who might have been attracted by the crack of the gun. While thus engaged, I heard the barking of a dog, which was almost inaudible from its distance, but the barking became momentarily louder, till the animal appeared just behind a swelling ground in front of me. Instantly the idea struck me that the Indians, by means of this dog, were trailing us, and could not be far off. I stepped behind a tree and cocked my gun, that I might shoot the dog as soon as he appeared, but what was my astonishment to discover that the animal was Girty's own dog. This dog had been tied up securely when we left home, but he had broken loose, and had tracked us through our ramified walks till he overtook us. That he had followed our trail was evident from the fact of his skin being still wet from crossing Mad river, which was in an opposite direction from Losantiville, now Cincinnati.

"After hanging our buck above the reach of wolves, we continued our course. The land now became low, and in many places swampy; and instead of the giant oak, which we had looked upon for the past few days, we now saw nothing but the low scrub oak, and a few bushes,

which were the last of the prairie shrubs. We now whooped and sung, and enjoyed ourselves without constraint, for we had left the Indian ground, where danger was less to be feared. But we soon encountered a foe which was quite as dangerous as the red men whom we avoided. As we advanced, and while I was listening to a song which Girty was roaring out to the extent of his voice, our attention was attracted by the peculiar barking of our dog; we were certain by the barking that Tray had discovered no common enemy, for the barking was continued and violent between a howl and his natural voice. We both ran toward the noise, keeping as much as possible behind the trees, for we had become cautious since our brush with the Indians. When within twenty steps of a towering sycamore, which looked like the patriarch of the woods among the small scrub oak, we beheld, crouched in a fork, a large panther, which, from appearances, was preparing to spring upon us. We had ran within a few feet of the tree before we were aware of the animal we had to deal with, but his glaring and fiery eye-balls were sufficient to apprize us that we were in imminent danger. Girty ran back the way we came, and thus avoided the danger; but I ran directly under the tree, in order to hide behind a small tree which grew beyond; but the enraged animal sprang from his retreat as I passed, and in his fall struck me with his paw. The blow was given with such force that I was knocked upon the ground, and before I could regain my feet, the animal sprang upon me with a deafening yell, and seized me with his fangs by the shoulder. Few, I doubt, have had the opportunity of examining the teeth of an animal with such close scrutiny as I then had. His large jaw lapped over my shoulder, and was so near my face that his long whiskers were thrust into my eyes. I was unable to wield a weapon; but my brave comrade, like a true man, was advancing to my aid. He could not shoot for fear of wounding me; but there was no time for hesitation, and dropping his gun, he drew his knife, and struck it to the handle in the animal's side. This treatment only provoked the panther, and he gnawed the bone of my shoulder till it cracked as if it was breaking. The dog, to make things worse, now got hold of my arm, and probably thinking he was doing me an essential service, shook it violently. After some struggling, I got my left arm loose, and at the same time the panther let go his hold, and attacked Girty with a fury which was only equaled by the readiness with which Girty repelled the attack. The dog now caught the animal by the hind leg, when he turned about and ran up the tree; he again took his station in the large fork, but we had learned a salutary lesson, and we kept at a distance. It was now nearly dark, which enabled us to see his glaring eye-balls glistening like two coals of fire, and his low growls and hisses gave us a prophetic hint not to venture too near. The blood from the wound which Girty had given him, flowed freely, and trickling down the tree, formed a long red line of coagulated blood; but the wound appeared only to have rendered him more furious, and he now lashed his tail against the tree, and tore the long strips of bark from it with his claws, while his red eye-balls rolled in their sockets, and his terrific appearance was not diminished by his long teeth, which I knew to be as sharp as needles.

"The dog still kept a continual howling, which, with the growls and screams of the panther, made most sonorous music, and the concert was assisted by a large owl which sat upon the same tree, and now sang out a long and dismal hoot, probably surprised at being thus disturbed in her slumbers. We were, doubtless, the first that woke the echo of a human voice in that wilderness. At the time these incidents transpired, which I have endeavored to paint, Ohio was a continuous wilderness, which had never been trodden but by the aborigines, who considered themselves as lords of the soil, and truly they were, till their avaricious white neighbors drove them from it. Formerly the Miami valley was inhabited but by the bear, the deer, and other wild animals, and it was many years after ere the echo of axes disturbed the stillness which had remained unbroken for ages-but improvements will go on so long as that restless spirit of emigration is stirring within human breasts. haunts which I then frequented to obtain my winter's venison, have since been turned up by the plowman; if I go to look at some favorite deerlick, I find some goods, store or tavern, and the busy bustle incident to town life all around me. Even "Flat Fork," that desolate and almost uninhabitable wilderness, has been encroached upon by the settler, but its subtile miasms will for ever prevent its being cultivated, for it is a huge reservoir of agues and fevers, which, to those who value health, will ever prevent cultivation.

The

"We now began in earnest to prepare for the death of the panther; my arm was so lacerated that I could not raise a gun to my shoulder, but Girty, who was probably a better shot than myself, now took a deliberate aim and fired. The ball passed through the beast; he sprang into the air, and fell midway between us and the tree. He was disabled from running, but not dead, which our dog discovered to his sorrow. As soon as the animal fell, the dog ran at him, but received a blow from his huge paw, which struck his ear, and stunned him so that he lay apparently dead for some minutes. My gun was yet loaded, which Girty cocked, and cautiously advancing sufficiently near to shoot-the ball passed between his eyes, his head fell between his fore-paws, and even after death his eyes still glared with that inveterate hate which they did while living. As the gun cracked, the dog revived from the stunning which he had received, and, like a true hero, mounted the panther's back, and in his fury for revenge did not appear to have discovered the animal was dead, till he shook him sometime by the neck. We built a fire on the spot where we had gained this our third victory, and examined my arms. The animal's teeth had penetrated to the bone, but had not broken it. We bound up the wound with a handkerchief, and skinned our panther. He measured from the nose to the tip of the tail seven feet nine inches, and his claws were nearly ten inches in length."

We gather from the North American Review some interesting particulars of the early settlement of Ohio.

There were a few events, connected with Ohio, previous to the Revolution, which had a bearing upon her present condition. One was, the rejection by France, in 1755, of the offer, made by England, to give up all her claim to the territory west of a line drawn from the mouth of

French Creek, twenty leagues up that stream toward lake Erie, and from the same point direct to the last mountains of Virginia which descend toward the ocean. The Indians between this line and the Mississippi were to be considered independent; but France was to retain Canada, and her settlements on the Illinois and Wabash. Had this offer been accepted, there is little doubt, from the ability always shown by the French in the management of the Indians, that their colonies would have been planted upon the Scioto, the Miami, and the Maumee; so that, even though the country had finally come under the control of the British colonists, it would have borne the marks of French manners, prejudices, and habits. Another event worthy of notice (we omit the war of 1756, as too well known to need comment) was, the proclamation of the king in 1763, after the treaty of Paris, forbidding his governors in America to grant any warrants of survey or patents "for any lands beyond the heads or sources of any of the rivers that fall into the Atlantic ocean from the west or northwest; " or upon any lands not ceded by the In dians. The effect of this proclamation was to prevent all attempts to settle any part of what now forms the state of Ohio.

In this manner, the soil of Ohio remained wholly untouched by Europeans until the Revolution. And during that struggle, it was preserved from settlement by the contest which arose among the states with reference to the ownership of the vacant lands.

Thus was the state, of which we write, reserved, apparently, until all was ripe, to try within her limits the experiment of democratic institutions, originating under the most favorable circumstances. The first men that trod her soil as citizens, were soldiers of the Revolution, the companions and friends of Washington; and they went to a land which could, when they entered it, bear up, as it has been said, no other than freemen.

The first step that was taken towards settling the Northwest Territory, was by the presentation of a memorial to Congress, from the officers and soldiers of the revolutionary army, entitled to land-bounties under the resolves of September sixteenth, 1776, and August twelfth, 1780. This memorial was forwarded to General Washington by Rufus Putnam, upon the sixteenth of June, 1785; and by him was transmitted to the President of Congress, together with General Putnam's letter, which gave at length his views respecting the settlement of the western country, and the location of military posts there. But at that time the final grants of Virginia, Connecticut and Massachusetts had not been made; and the Federal legislature, upon the twenty-ninth of October, 1783, having under consideration a memorial from General Armand, resolved, that, much as they desired to fulfil their engagements to the officers of the army, they could not, at that time, assign them any particular district.

We cannot enter into an examination of the protests, remonstrances, and petitions, which resulted in the cession, by all the states, of their vacant lands to the Union: but must content ourselves with the bare statement, that New York conveyed her claims to Congress the first of March, 1781; tha Virginia released hers upon the first of that month three