A History of Jonathan Alder by Larry Nelson

Author:Larry Nelson
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781884836985
Publisher: The University of Akron Press

Samuel Davis

Late one evening soon after I had moved to Darby, a rugged, stout-looking man called to stay all night. Through the course of the evening we commenced discoursing about the Indians and he began to speak very disrespectful language of them. I took their part and that seemed to rough his ambition, and finally both of us got out of humor. I told him they were as human as us in a great many respects and, in some ways, more so. I told him I knew all about Indians for they had raised me from a little boy and I had been with them for twenty-four years. He then wanted to know if I was the prisoner Jonathan Alder that there was so much talk about. I told him I was. He then cooled down and told me his name was Samuel Davis and that he was a prisoner by the Indians for a short time, and that they had used him very rough.129 He went on to tell me how he and another man was out hunting and trapping on the Big Sandy River and had been very successful catching otter and beaver, and was slowly making their way back, trapping as they went. One night, as they had camped on an island they kindled a little fire, a thing they had seldom done before. A party of Indians came floating down the river after they had gone to sleep and slipped in on them, and took them by surprise. When they awoke, they was completely surrounded, and surrendered without making any opposition. The Indians immediately tied them and packed all their traps and furs and guns, and took them into their canoes.

“We pushed on,” said Davis, “until we crossed the Ohio River and there struck out through the country in a northerly direction. We traveled several days during which they kept my hands tied and a strong tug around my body tied to an Indian. The last day I was with them, it rained and the tugs around my wrists swelled so that it was paining me very much, and so I hardly slept any that night. Along towards day, I requested through the interpreter to have the cord loosened a little, as it was troubling me very much. The Indian that I was tied to gave me a dig with his elbow and bade me lie still. Just as day began to dawn, I made the request again. By this time there was several Indians up who had stirred the fire. One of them ordered a boy to loose me and he, not understanding, loosed my hands and loosed me from the other Indian.

“No sooner was I loose than I arose to my feet, determined to make an effort to escape. I looked in every direction to see the safest way to make the start. Their guns were all stacked together and I quickly made up my mind to run in the opposite direction so that they would have to step back to get their weapons and, by so doing, I would gain some time.

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