Your Guide to the
Alle-Kiski Valley
and the Greater
Pittsburgh Area
Saturday
November 23, 2024
Home
Go Outside
History
Diversion
Back Issues
|
History - Pioneers - Massa Harbison
|
The
Return |
 |
In this almost helpless condition, I had not gone far, before
I came to a path where there had been cattle traveling,
I took the path under the impression that it would lead me
to the abode of some white people, and by traveling it about
one mile, I came to an uninhabited cabin! and though I was
in a river bottom, yet I knew not where I was, nor yet on
what river bank I had come. Here I was seized with the
feelings of despair, and under those feelings I went to the
uninhabited cabin, and concluded that I would enter and lie
down and die; as death would have been to me an angel of
mercy in such a situation, and would have removed me from
all my misery!
Such were my feelings at this distressing moment, and
had it not been for the recollection of those sufferings which
my infant would endure, who would survive for some time
after I was dead, I should have carried my determination
into execution. Here, too, I heard the sound of a cow bell,
which imparted a gleam of hope to my descending mind! I
followed the sound of the bell, till I came opposite to the fort
at the point of the six mile Island.
When I came there, I saw three men on the opposite bank
of the river. My feelings at the sight of these were better
felt than they can be described. I called to them, but they
seemed unwilling to risk the danger of coming after me and
asked who I was. I replied, that I was one who had been
taken prisoner by the Indians on the Allegheny river on last
Tuesday morning and had made my escape from them. They
requested me to walk up the bank of the river awhile that
they might see if the Indians were making a decoy of me,
but I replied to them that my feet were so sore that I could
not walk.
Then one of them, James Closier, got into a canoe to
fetch me over, and the other two stood on the bank with
their rifles cocked, ready to fire on the Indians, provided
they were using me as a decoy. When Mr. Closier came near
and saw my haggard and dejected appearance, he exclaimed,
'who in the name of God are you?' This man was one of my
nearest neighbors, yet in six days I was so much altered
that he did not know me, either by my voice or my countenance.
When I landed on the inhabited side of the river, the
people from the fort came running out to the boat to see me:
they took the child from me, and now I felt safe from danger,
I found myself unable to move, or to assist myself in
any degree. Whereupon the people took me, and carried me
out of the boat to the house of Mr. Cortus.
Here, when I felt I was secure from the ravages and
cruelties of the barbarians, for the first time since my captivity,
my feelings returned with all their poignancy!
The tears flowed freely, imparting a happiness beyond what
I ever experienced. When I was taken into the house the
heat of the fire, and the smell of the victuals, which the kindness
of the People immediately induced them to provide for
me, caused me to faint. Some of the people attempted to
restore me, and some of them put some clothes upon me. But
the kindness of these friends would, in all probability, have
killed me, had it not been for the providential arrival, from
down the river, of Major M'Culley, who then commanded
the line along the river. When he came in and saw my situation,
and the provisions they were making for me, he became
greatly alarmed, and immediately ordered me out of the
house, from the heat and smell;-prohibited my taking
anything but the whey of buttermilk, and that in very small
quantities, which he administered with his own hands.
Through this judicious management of my almost last
situation, I was mercifully restored again to my senses, and very
gradually to my health and strength.
Two of the females, Sarah Carter and Mary Anne
Crozier, then began to take out the thorns from my feet and
legs; and Mr. Felix Negley, who now lives at the mouth of
Bull Creek, twenty miles above Pittsburgh, stood by and
counted the thorns, as the women took them out; and there
were one hundred and fifty drawn out, though they were not
all extracted at that time, for the next evening, at Pittsburgh,
there were many more taken out. The flesh was mangled
dreadfully, and the skin and flesh were hanging in pieces, on
my feet and legs. The wounds were not healed for a considerable
time. Some of the thorns went through my feet,
and came out on the top. For two weeks I was unable to
put my feet to the ground to walk.
Besides which, the rain to which I was exposed by night,
and the heat of the sun, to which my almost naked body was
exposed by day, together with my carrying my child so
long in my arms, without any relief, and any shelter from
the heat of the day or the storms of the night, caused nearly
all the skin of my body to come off, so that my body was
raw nearly all over.
The two men's tracks which I had followed down the run,
referred to before, and which made me so much afraid were
two spies, James Amberson and John Thompson, who arrived
at the station very soon after me.
Epilogue
|
|
