and
murderous fury. One of the best and truest friends they ever had, the
great Mingo chief Logan, who was at last the means of Kenton's escape
from the stake, bore witness to these facts in his famous speech; for in
spite of his friendship for the whites, he had suffered the worst
that they could do to the worst of their foes. When such white men as
butchered Logan's kindred sided with the Indians, they only changed
their cause; their savage natures remained unchanged; but very few of
these, even, seem to have been so far trusted in their fear and hate for
their own people as to be taken by the Indians in their forays against
the whites.

The great Miami chief Little Turtle, who outgeneralled the Americans at
the defeat of St. Clair, used to tell with humorous relish how he once
trusted a white man adopted into his tribe. This white man was very
eager to go with him on a raid into Kentucky, and when they were
stealing upon the cabin they were going to attack, nothing could
restrain his desire to be foremost. When they got within a few yards, he
suddenly dashed forward with a yell of "Indians, Indians!" and left his
red brethren to get out of the range of the settlers' rifles as fast as
they could.

But Simon Girty led many of the savage attacks, and showed himself the
relentless enemy of the American cause at every chance, though more than
once he used his power with the Indians to save prisoners from torture
and death. He was born in Pennsylvania, and he was captured with his
brothers, George and James, during Braddock's campaign. They were all
taken to Ohio, where George was adopted by the Delawares, James by the
Shawnees, and Simon by the Senecas. George died a drunken savage; James
became the terror of the Kentucky border, and infamous throughout the
West by his cruelty to the women among the Indians' captives; he seems
to have been without one touch of pity for the fate of any of their
prisoners, and his cruelties were often charged upon Simon, who had
enough of his own to answer for. Yet he seems to have been the best as
well as the ablest of the three brothers whose name is the blackest in
Ohio history. Many of the stories about him are evidently mere romance,
and they often conflict. As he was captured when very young, he never
learned to read or write; and it is said that he was persuaded by worse
and wiser men to take sides with the British in the Revolution. But
we need not believe that he was so ignorant