winter weather. A dozen persons, including a woman and two children,
were killed, and five men were taken prisoners. The New England
settlers, though brave and hardy, were unused to Indian warfare. They
were taken completely by surprise, and made no effective resistance; the
only Indian hurt was wounded with a hatchet by the wife of a frontier
hunter in the employ of the company. [Footnote: "The American Pioneer,"
II., 110. American State Papers, IV., 122.] There were some twenty-five
Indians in the attacking party; they were Wyandots and Delawares, who
had been mixing on friendly terms with the settlers throughout the
preceding summer, and so knew how best to deliver the assault. The
settlers had not only treated these Indians with much kindness, but had
never wronged any of the red race; and had been lulled into a foolish
feeling of security by the apparent good-will of the treacherous foes.
The assault was made in the twilight, on the 2nd of January, the Indians
crossing the frozen Muskingum and stealthily approaching a block-house
and two or three cabins. The inmates were frying meat for supper, and
did not suspect harm, offering food to the Indians; but the latter, once
they were within doors, dropped the garb of friendliness, and shot or
tomahawked all save a couple of men who escaped and the five who were
made prisoners. The captives were all taken to the Miami, or Detroit,
and as usual were treated with much kindness and humanity by the British
officers and traders with whom they came in contact. McKee, the British
Indian agent, who was always ready to incite the savages to war against
the Americans as a nation, but who was quite as ready to treat them
kindly as individuals, ransomed one prisoner; the latter went to his
Massachusetts home to raise the amount of his ransom, and returned to
Detroit to refund it to his generous rescuer. Another prisoner was
ransomed by a Detroit trader, and worked out his ransom in Detroit
itself. Yet another was redeemed from captivity by the famous Iroquois
chief Brant, who was ever a terrible and implacable foe, but a