ke! But why continue a description so horrible?
Nature at length could endure no more, and at a late hour in the night, he
was released by death from the hands of his tormentors.[B]

Whether Girty really took pleasure in the torture of Colonel Crawford, or
was forced by circumstances to seem to enjoy it is a question which
historians have generally been in too much haste to determine. It is well
known that at the time of Crawford's expedition the Indians were very much
exasperated by the cold-blooded slaughter of the Moravian red men at
Guadenhutten--an atrocity without a parallel in border warfare, and to
have seemed merciful to the whites for a single moment would have been
fatal to Girty. Indeed, it is said, that, when he spoke of ransoming the
colonel, Captain Pipe threatened him with death at the stake. Let justice
be rendered even to the worst of criminals.

Dr. Knight, made bold or desperate by the torture he had witnessed,
effected his escape from the Shawnee warrior to whose care he was
committed, and after much suffering, reached the settlements. From him the
greater portion of the account of Crawford's death is derived, and
corrected by the statements of Indians present on the occasion. Simon
Girty never forsook the Indians among whom he had made his home; but his
influence gradually diminished. Some accounts say that he perished in the
battle of the Thames; while others assert that he lived to extreme old age
in Canada, where his descendants are now highly respected citizens.

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[B] M'Clurg.

JOSHUA FLEEHART.

Extraordinary strength and activity, with the most daring courage and a
thorough knowledge of life in the woods, won for Joshua Fleehart a high
reputation among the first settler's of Western Virginia and Ohio. When
the Ohio Company founded its settlement at Marietta, in April, 1778,
Fleehart was employed as a scout and a hunter. In this service he had no
superior north of the Ohio. At periods of the greatest danger, when the
Indians were known to be much incensed against the whites, he would start
from the settlement with no companion but his dog, and ranging within
about twenty miles of an Indian town, would build his cabin and trap and
hunt during nearly the whole season. On one occasion this reckless
contempt of danger almost cost the hunter his life.

[Illustration: JOSHUA FLEEHART.]

Having became tired of the sameness of garrison life, and panting for that
freedom among