COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES
stand-up fight, but would strike suddenly and retreat, yet there was not a drop of cowardly blood in an Indian. When parties were sent out on a raid it was customary to send as sup¬ port in case of reverses a band of hunters, with squaws and camp equipage, to locate an advanced supply camp not far from the scene of battle. From this center the hunters would go out after game and act as a rear guard, awaiting the retreat of the war party.
The return of the successful warriors was the occasion of much rejoicing and excitement. They came in with shouts of victory, waving the bloody scalps and driving before them the captured victims that had been preserved for the sacrifice, their hands tied behind them and their faces blackened as a sign that they were to be burned at the stake. First the victims were made to run the gauntlet. Indians of all ages, squaws and children, stood in a long double line, between which the prisoner was compelled to run, sometimes blindfolded and bound. The savages were armed with any weapons that came to hand, slicks, clubs, switches, whips, knives and tomahawks, with which the unfortunate was struck and slashed, often to death. Sometimes sand was thrown in the eyes to impede progress. In most instances the captive was allowed to live long enough to be lashed to the stake and burned.
The hardy pioneers of this country became inured to these acts of rapine and reprisal and in many instances returned the debt with interest. It would be impossible to overdraw the horrible pictures of death and torture that were the experiences of many of the pioneer settlers of this country. An Indian would not hesitate to dash out the brains of a family of children in the presence of the father and mother, and then scalp the parents and burn the home. In return, there was no quarter given the savages when captured. No prisoners were taken by either side in the latter days of the warfare between the whites and Indians. A good Indian was usually a dead one. Chapter after chapter could be filled with the stories of the hardships and cruelties suffered by our forefathers, but space will not permit their repetition.
It sometimes happened that prisoners were spared by the Indians through superstition or intent, and in these cases the captive was care¬ fully guarded against escape while being Initiated into the life of the savage. Some of the captives married squaws, became satisfied with the mode of life and remained with the Indians. Children sometimes were preserved from death and adopted into the tribe, in later years becoming as much attached to their foster parents as if they had been born into the life. These seldom were reclaimed to a life of civilization. Interpreters for the tribes were usually selected from these captives, and it was often found they had grown to like the savage existence and attained positions of trust and responsibility. However, some of the white men who voluntarily entered the Indian tribes became more fiendish and inhuman than the natives themselves. With the names of Butler and Brandt are associated all that the human mind can conceive that was cruel and devilish. They seemed to revel in carnage and blood.
As a contrast to this, instances are to be found where the native sense of honor of the Indian caused him to withhold his hand from the destruction of those who had befriended him and to warn them of the attacks of other tribes. In this respect the Quakers were singularly exempt from attack and murder, through their fixed policy of dealing in a just manner with the Indians. Few instances are recorded where a member of the Society of Friends suffered from the depredations of the savages, who had learned of their high sense of humanity and justice.
FRONTIER FORTS. COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES
The treaty and purchase of 1754 between the Penns and the representatives of the Six Nations caused great dissatisfaction among the Shawanese, Delawares and Monseys, who considered that they had been defrauded of their lands, which had been guaranteed to them by the Iroquois. They therefore proceeded to go on the warpath, and the settlements were raided, the settlers scalped and their homes destroyed.
This being brought to the attention of the proprietaries, preparations were made for the protection of the settlers, and Benjamin Franklin ordered the construction of Fort Augusta, at what is now the site of Sunbury. This was followed by the erection of many other forts along the valleys of the North and West Branches of the Susquehanna, viz.; Fort Jenkins, in Briarcrcek township, Columbia county; Fort Wheeler, on Fishing creek, about three miles above its mouth; Fort McClure on the Susquehanna within the limits of the present town of Bloomsburg; Fort Rice, on the headwaters of Chillisquaque creek, thirteen miles from Sunbury; Montgomery’s Fort, twelve miles below Muncy on
