ge snow-shoe, which they
followed, and at a considerable distance came to a little hut, where
they discovered a young woman sitting alone. On examination, she
proved to be one of the Dog-ribbed Indians, who had been taken
prisoner by another tribe, in the summer of 1770; and, in the
following summer, when the Indians that took her prisoner were near
this place, she had escaped from them, intending to return to her own
country. But the distance being so great, and having, after she was
taken prisoner, been carried in a canoe the whole way, the turnings
and windings of the rivers and lakes were so numerous that she forgot
the track; so she built the hut in which she was found, to protect her
from the weather during the winter, and here she had resided from the
first setting-in of the fall.

_Brian._ What, all by herself! How lonely she must have been!

_Hunter._ From her account of the moons passed since her escape, it
appeared that she had been nearly seven months without seeing a human
face; during all which time she had supplied herself very well, by
snaring partridges, rabbits and squirrels: she had also killed two or
three beavers, and some porcupines. She did not seem to have been in
want, and had a small stock of provisions by her when she was
discovered. She was in good health and condition, and one of the
finest of Indian women.

_Austin._ I should have been afraid that other Indians would have come
and killed her.

_Hunter._ The methods practised by this poor creature to procure a
livelihood were truly admirable, and furnish proof that necessity is
indeed the mother of invention. When the few deer sinews, that she had
an opportunity of taking with her, were expended, in making snares and
sewing her clothing, she had nothing to supply their place but the
sinews of the rabbits' legs and feet. These she twisted together for
that purpose with great dexterity and success. The animals which she
caught in those snares, not only furnished her with a comfortable
subsistence, but of the skins she made a suit of neat and warm
clothing for the winter. It is scarcely possible to conceive that a
person in her forlorn situation could be so composed as to be capable
of contriving and executing any thing that was not absolutely
necessary to her existence; but there was sufficient proof that she
had extended her care much farther, as all her clothing, besides being
calculated for real service, showed great taste, and exhibit