s
became Fort Pitt, and is now Pittsburg. A large body of savages was
encamped outside the post, and there Smith expected to be burned to
death with the tortures he afterwards saw inflicted upon many other
prisoners; but he was only made to run the gantlet. Two lines of Indians
were drawn up, with sticks in their hands, and Smith dashed at the top
of his speed between their ranks. He was cruelly beaten, and before he
reached the goal he fell senseless. When he came to himself he was in
the hands of a French surgeon. He was well cared for, and he lived in
hopes of rescue by Braddock's army, which was marching against Fort
Duquesne in greater force than had ever been sent into the wilderness.
But while he was still so broken and bruised as to be scarcely able to
walk, the Indians came in with plunder and prisoners from the scene of
their bloody victory over the British troops.

A little later, Smith's captors claimed him from the French, and carried
him to an Indian town on the Muskingum. The day after their arrival a
number of the Indians came to him, and one of them began to pull out his
hair, dipping his fingers in ashes to get a better hold, and plucking it
away hair by hair till it was all gone except a lock on the crown. This
they plaited with strings of beadwork and silver brooches, and then they
bored his ears and nose and put rings in them. They painted his face
and body in different colors, hung a band of wampum about his neck, and
fitted his arm with bracelets of silver. An old chief led him into
the street of the village, and gave the alarm halloo, when all the
Delawares, Caughnewagas, and Mohicans of the place came running, and
formed round the chief, who held Smith by the hand, and made them a long
speech. He then gave Smith over to three young squaws, who pulled him
into the river waist-deep, and made signs to him that he should plunge
his head into the water. But Smith's head was full of the tortures of
the prisoners whom he had seen burnt at Fort Duquesne; he believed
all these ceremonies were the preparations for his death, and he would
neither duck.

He struggled with them, amidst the shouts and laughter of the Indians on
the shore, until one of them managed to say in English, "No hurt you,"
when he suffered them to plunge him under the water and rub at him as
long as they chose.

[Illustration: Indian baptism of James Smith 053]

By this means they washed away his white blood, and he was adopted in