chap. X.} 1764. Oct. |
There the Shawnees, the most violent and warlike all the tribes, accepting the terms of peace with dejected sullenness, promised by their orator, Red Hawk, to collect all captives from the lower towns, and restore them in the spring; and there the nearer villages brought their white prisoners to the English. The arrival of the lost ones formed the loveliest scene ever witnessed in the wilderness. Mothers recognised their once lost babes; sisters and brothers, scarcely able to recover the accent of their native tongue, learned to know that they were children of the same parents.
How does humanity abound in affections! Whom the Indians spared they loved! They had not taken the little ones and the captives into their wigwams without receiving them into their hearts, and adopting them into their tribes and families. To part with them now was anguish to the red men; they shed torrents of tears; they entreated of the white men to show kindness to those whom they restored. From day to day they visited them in the camp; they gave them corn and skins. As the English returned to Pittsburg, they followed to hunt for them, and bring them provisions. A young Mingo would not be torn from a young woman of Virginia, whom he had taken as his wife. Some of the children who had been carried away young had learned to love their savage friends, and wept at leaving them. Some of the captives would not come of themselves, and were not brought away but in bonds. Who can fathom the mysteries of woman's love? Some, who were not permitted to remain, clung to their dusky lovers at
