tance as far as possible, she raised both her hands, first
counting the fingers of one hand, then of the other--making a distance of
eight miles. The Indian then signed to her that she must rise; she
immediately got up, and as soon as she could dress herself, commenced
showing the Indians one article of clothing after another, which pleased
them very much; and in that way, delayed them at the house nearly two
hours. In the meantime, the Indian who had been in pursuit of her husband,
returned with his hands stained with poke berries, which he held up, and
with some violent gestures, and waving of his tomahawk, attempted to
induce the belief, that the stain on his hands was the blood of her
husband, and that he had killed him. She was enabled at once to discover
the deception, and instead of producing any alarm on her part, she was
satisfied that her husband had escaped uninjured.

After the savages had plundered the house of everything that they could
conveniently carry off with them, they started, taking Mrs. Daviess and
her children--seven in number, as prisoners along with them. Some of the
children were too young to travel as fast as the Indians wished, and
discovering, as she believed, their intention to kill such of them as
could not conveniently travel, she made the two oldest boys carry them on
their backs. The Indians, in starting from the house, were very careful to
leave no signs of the direction which they had taken, not even permitting
the children to break a twig or weed, as they passed along. They had not
gone far, before an Indian drew a knife and cut off a few inches of Mrs.
Daviess' dress, so that she would not be interrupted in travelling.

Mrs. Daviess was a woman of cool, deliberate courage, and accustomed to
handle the gun so that she could shoot well, as many of the women were in
the habit of doing in those days. She had contemplated, as a last resort,
that if not rescued in the course of the day, when night came and the
Indians had fallen asleep, she would rescue herself and children by
killing as many of the Indians as she could--thinking that in a night
attack as many of them as remained, would most probably run off. Such an
attempt would now seem a species of madness; but to those who were
acquainted with Mrs. Daviess, little doubt was entertained, that if the
attempt had been made, it would have proved successful.

The boy who had been scalped, was greatly disfigured, as the hair never
after