and eight feet wide, with no other bulwark than a single pine plank,
above each gunnel. The boat was much encumbered with baggage, and seven
horses were on board. Having seen no enemy for several days, they had
become secure and careless, and permitted the boat to drift within
fifty yards of the Ohio shore. Suddenly, several hundred Indians showed
themselves on the bank, and running down boldly to the water's edge,
opened a heavy fire upon the boat. The astonishment of the crew may be
conceived."

Captain Ward and his nephew were at the oars when the enemy appeared,
and the captain knowing that their safety depended upon their agility
to regain the middle of the river, kept his seat firmly, and exerted
his utmost powers at the oar, but his nephew started up at sight of
the enemy, seized his rifle, and was in the act of leveling it, when
he received a ball in the breast, and fell dead in the bottom of the
boat. Unfortunately, his oar fell into the river, and the Captain,
having no one to pull against him, rather urged the boat nearer to the
hostile shore than otherwise. He quickly seized a plank, however, and
giving his oar to another of the crew, he took the station which his
nephew had held, and unhurt by the shower of bullets which flew around
him, continued to exert himself until the boat had reached a more
respectable distance. He then, for the first time, looked around him
in order to observe the condition of the crew.

His nephew lay in his blood, perfectly lifeless; the horses had been
all killed or mortally wounded. Some had fallen overboard; others were
struggling violently, and causing their frail bark to dip water so
abundantly as to excite the most serious apprehensions. But the crew
presented the most singular spectacle. A captain, who had served with
reputation in the continental army, seemed now totally bereft of his
faculties. He lay upon his back in the bottom of the boat, with hands
uplifted, and a countenance in which terror was personified, exclaiming
in a tone of despair, "Oh Lord! Oh Lord." A Dutchman, whose weight
might amount to about three hundred pounds, was anxiously engaged in
endeavoring to find shelter for his bulky person, which, from the
lowness of the gunnels, was a very difficult undertaking. In spite of
his utmost efforts, a portion of his posterior luxuriance appeared above
the gunnel, and afforded a mark to the enemy, which brought a constant
shower of balls around it.

"In vain