AN ADVENTURE WITH INDIANS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9823, 18 May 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

AN ADVENTURE WITH INDIANS.

In bis book, "Tho Winning of the West," Theodore Roosevelt tells of an adventure which bofel two lads along the Indian frontier. Their father was one of the restless pioneers along the Upper Ohio, who were always striving to take up claims across the river, heedless of the Indian treaties. The two boys, John and Henry, were at the time thirteen and eleven years old respectively. One Sunday, about noon, they went to find a hat which they had lost the day before at the spot where they had been working, three-quarters of a mile from , the house. Having found the hat, they sat down by the roadside to crack nuts, and were surprised by two Indians ; they were not harmed, but were forced to go with their captors, who kept travelling slowly through the woods on the outskirts of the settlements, looking for horses. The elder boy soon made friends with the Indians, telling them that he and his brother were ill-treated at home, and would be glad to get a chance to try Indian life. By degrees they grew to believe he was in earnest, and plied him with all kinds of questions concerning the neighbours, their live stock, their guns, the number of men in the different families, to all of which he replied with seeming eagerness and frankness. At night they stopped to camp, one Indian scouting through the woods while the other kindled a fire by flashing powder in the pan of his rifle. For supper they had parched corn and pork roasted over the coals; there was then some further talk, and the Indians lay down to sleep, one on each side of the boys. After a while, supposing that their captives were asleep, and anticipating no trouble from two unarmed boys, one Indian gob up and lay down on the other side of the fire, where ho was soon snoring heavily. Then the lads, who had j been wide awake biding their time, whispered to one another, and noiselessly roue. ! The elder took one of the guns, silently cocked it, and, pointing it at the head of one Indian, directed the younger boy to take it and pull the trigger, while he himself stood over the head of the other Indian with drawn tomahawk. Tho other boy then fired, his Indian never moving after receiving the shot, while the other boy struck at the same moment; but the tomahawk went too far back on the neck, and the savage tried to spring to his feet, yelling loudly. However, tho boy struck him again and again as he strove to rise, and he fell back and was soon dead. Then tho two boys hurried off through the darkness, fearing lest other Indians might be in tho neighbourhood. Not very far away they struck a path which they recognised, and the elder hung up his hat, that they might find the scene of their feat when they came back. Continuing their course, they reached a blockhouse shortly before daybreak. On the following day a party of men went out with the elder boy, and found the two dead Indians