party were
concealed, while three other Indians were perceived further off and
going in a contrary direction. The curiosity of the whole party being
strongly excited, the leader of them showed himself openly on the
point. When the Indian discovered him she was for a moment motionless,
then screamed violently and ran off--at this time the persons in
pursuit were in ignorance as to whether the Indian was male or female.
One of the party immediately started in pursuit, but did not gain on
her until he had taken off his jacket and rackets, when he came up
with her fast; as she kept looking back at her pursuer over her
shoulder; he dropped his gun on the snow and held up his hands to shew
her he was unarmed, and on pointing to his gun, which was some
distance behind, she stopped--he did the same, then he advanced and
gave her his hand, she gave her's to him, and to all the party as they
came up. Seven or eight Indians were then seen repeatedly running off
and on the pond, and shortly three of them came towards the party--the
woman spoke to them, and two of the Indians joined the English, while
the third remained some one hundred yards off. Something being
observed under the cassock of one of the Indians, he was searched and
a hatchet taken from him. The two Indians then took hold of the man
who had seized the Indian woman, and endeavoured to force her away
from him, but not succeeding in this, he tried to get possession of
three different guns, and at last succeeded in geting hold of one,
which he tried to wrest from the man who held it; not being able to
accomplish this, the Indian seized the Englishman by the throat, and
the danger being imminent, three shots were fired, all so
simultaneously that it appeared as if only one gun had been
discharged. The Indian dropped, and his companions immediately fled.
In extenuation of this, to say the least of it, most deplorable event,
it is said, "could we have intimidated him, or persuaded him to leave
us, or even have seen the others go off, we should have been most
happy to have been spared using violence--but when it is remembered
that our small party were in the heart of the Indian country, a
hundred miles from any European settlement, and that there were in our
sight at times, as many Indians as our party amounted to, and we could
not ascertain how many were in the woods that we did not see, it could
not be avoided with safety to ourselves. Had destruction been our
object, we m