Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 8).djvu/75

to them; they all let go of me. I turned to this Indian and made signs of sickness, by putting my hand on my breast, &c., which he noticed, and seemingly with pity; he was the only sober one among them. They now began a second attack upon me; he spoke again and they left me. He now made a motion for me to go on, which I did, and having proceeded a few yards, I turned my head partly round and perceived a young Indian with a glass bottle in his hand just in the act of striking me on the head. I looked him full in the face; he lowered his bottle, and sitting partly down, laughed; he then returned to his comrades. I travelled on as fast as possible till I lost sight of them, when getting about half a mile, I came to a stream of water which crossed the road. It was narrow, and the current swift; a tree was fallen across, on the body of which I passed over. Stopping for a moment, I heard the yell of an Indian, and the footsteps of a horse in full speed; fearing it might be some of the gang I had just left, I stepped into the bushes and secreted myself behind a tree. In this situation I could see a person who passed without being discovered myself. Scarcely had I placed myself behind the tree when an Indian rode up to the stream on full speed with a {43} rifle on his shoulder; coming to the stream of water, his horse stopped and refused to proceed; he made several attempts to cross, but the horse refused, wheeling about and endeavoring to return. The Indian finding that he could not make the horse cross, sat still, looking up and down in every direction for a considerable time, when, perceiving no person, and not descrying the object of his pursuit, he wheeled about and returned. This was the same young Indian who pursued me with the bottle, and who, had he been fortunate enough to have discovered me, would immediately have ended my life with his rifle.