Among those of the troops who went out under Col. Crawford, that came
into Wheeling, was a man by the name of Mills.[14] Having rode very
fast, and kept his horse almost continually travelling, he was forced
to leave him, near to the present town of St. Clairsville in Ohio. Not
liking the idea of loosing him altogether, upon his arrival at
Wheeling he prevailed on Lewis Wetsel[15] to go with him to the place
where his horse gave out, to see if they could not find him.
Apprehensive that the savages would pursue the fugitives to the
border of the settlements, Wetsel advised Mills that their path would
not be free from dangers, and counselled him to "prepare for
fighting."

When they came near to the place where the horse had been left, they
met a party of about forty Indians going towards [249] the Ohio river
and who discovered Mills and Wetsel as soon as these saw them. Upon
the first fire from the Indians Mills was wounded in the heel, and
soon overtaken and killed. Wetzel singled out his mark, shot, and
seeing an Indian fall, wheeled and ran. He was immediately followed by
four of the savages, who laid aside their guns that they might the
more certainly overtake him. Having by practice, acquired the art of
loading his gun as he ran, Wetsel was indifferent how near the savages
approached him, if he were out of reach of the rifles of the others.
Accordingly, keeping some distance ahead of his pursuers whilst
re-loading his gun, he relaxed his speed until the foremost Indian had
got within ten or twelve steps of him. He then wheeled, shot him dead,
and again took to flight. He had now to exert his speed to keep in
advance of the savages 'till he should again load, & when this was
accomplished and he turned to fire, the second Indian was near enough
to catch hold of the gun, when as Wetsel expressed it, "_they had a
severe wring_." At length he succeed in raising the muzzle to the
breast of his antagonist, and killed him also.

In this time both the pursuers and pursued had become much jaded, and
although Wetsel had consequently a better opportunity of loading
quickly, yet taught wariness by the fate of their companions, the two
remaining savages would spring behind trees whenever he made a
movement like turning towards them. Taking advantage of a more open
piece of ground, he was enabled to fire on one of them who had sought
protection behind a sapling too small to screen his body. The ball
fractured his thigh, and pr