hat manner--except by an almost
interminable search--could he learn what tribe held them prisoners?

In the autumn of 1778, Frances Slocum, a little girl five years old, was
stolen from her home in Wyoming Valley, and carried away by Delaware
Indians. For a period of fifty-nine years the search for her was
prosecuted with more or less earnestness. Thousands of dollars were
spent, scores of persons were engaged at the same time in the hunt,
journeys were made among the Western tribes, friendly Indians themselves
were enlisted in the work, and yet, although the searchers were often
within a few miles of her, they never picked up the first clue. After
the lapse of more than half a century, when all hope had been abandoned
by the surviving friends, the whereabouts of the woman became known,
through an occurrence that was as purely an accident as was anything
that ever took place in this world.

Admitting the unapproachable woodcraft and skill of the young Shawanoe,
yet he could not do the impossible. Could he be spared a hundred years,
possibly he might make the grand round of his people on the American
continent, but in the meantime, what of his friends for whom he would be
making this extended tour?

If so it should be that the boys were in the power of the Shawanoes, or
Miamis, or Delawares, they were far to the east of the Mississippi; if
with the Wyandots, they were also east of the Father of Waters, and
probably in the vicinity of Lake Erie; if with the Ojibwas, to the
northward along Lake Huron; if with the Ottawas, they were the same
distance north, but on the shores of Lake Michigan; if with the
Pottawatomies, further south on the same lake; if in the villages of the
Kickapoos, or Winnebagoes, or Menomonies, it was on the southern and
western shores of the same body of water; if with the Ottigamies, or
Sacs, or Foxes, or in the land of the Assinoboine, the hunt must be of
the most prolonged character.

Still further, the vast bulk of the western continent stretched westward
toward the Pacific. When Deerfoot faced the setting sun, he knew he was
looking over the rim of one of the grandest countries of the globe. He
had fair ideas of the vast prairies, enormous streams, prodigious
mountains and almost illimitable area, which awaited the development of
the coming centuries.

One other suggestive fact was known to Deerfoot: representatives of the
Indian tribes among the foothills of the Rocky Mountains had exchang