as in this bloody embrace
they rolled over and over on the ground. The boy, praying that the bear
might tear the Indian in pieces, added new speed to his flight and
reached the fort in safety.

There he found Yates who had arrived but a few moments before him, and
who had outrun the other Indian. The next morning a well armed party
returned to the tree. Both the bear and the Indian had disappeared.
Probably both had suffered very severely in the conflict, and both had
escaped with their lives.

Another incident illustrative of these perilous adventures in the now
peaceful State of Kentucky. Mr. Rowan, with his own and five other
families, left the little hamlet at Louisville to float down the Ohio to
Green River, and to ascend that stream, intending to rear their new
homes on its fertile and delightful banks. The families were quite
comfortably accommodated in a large flat-bottomed boat. Another boat of
similar construction conveyed their cattle and sundry articles of
household furniture. On the route which they were pursuing, there were
then no settlements. The Ohio river and the Green river flowed through
unbroken solitudes.

The flat boats had floated down the beautiful Ohio, through scenes of
surpassing loveliness, about one hundred miles, when one night about ten
o'clock a prodigious shouting and yelling of Indians was heard some
distance farther down the river on the northern shore. Very soon they
came in sight of their camp-fires, which were burning very brightly. It
was evident that the Indians were having a great carousal rejoicing
over some victory. Mr. Rowan immediately ordered the two boats to be
lashed firmly together. There were but seven men on board who were
capable of making efficient use of the rifle. Plying the oars as
vigorously and noiselessly as they could, they endeavored to keep close
to the Kentucky shore. And yet they were careful not to approach too
near, lest there might be Indians there also. It was evident that there
was a large gathering of the Indians on the northern bank, for their
camp-fires extended for a distance of nearly half a mile along the
river.

As the boats floated noiselessly along in the gloom of the night, under
shadow of the cliffs, they were not detected until they were opposite
the central fire, whose brilliancy threw a flood of light nearly across
the stream. A simultaneous shout greeted this discovery, and with
terrific yells the savages rushed to their canoes an