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was near falling to extinguish the fire, and then we kindled a large circle in the prairie. At this time, or before the bucks began to run, a great number of deer lay concealed in the grass, in the day, and moved about in the night; but as the fire burned in towards the centre of the circle, the deer fled before the fire; the Indians were scattered also at some distance before the fire, and shot them down every opportunity, which was very frequent, especially as the circle became small. When we came to divide the deer, there were about ten to each hunter, which were all killed in a few hours. The rain did not come on that night to put out the outside circle of the fire, and as the wind arose, it extended through the whole prairie, which was about fifty miles in length, and in some places nearly twenty in breadth. This put an end to our ringhunting this season, and was in other respects an injury to us in the hunting business; so that upon the whole, we received more harm than benefit by our rapid hunting frolic. We then moved from the north end of the glades, and encamped at the carrying place.

"This place is in the plains, betwixt a creek that empties into Sandusky, and one that runs into Scioto; and at the time of high water, or the spring season, there is but about. one half mile of portage, and that very level and clear of rocks, timber or stones, so that with a little digging, there may be water carriage the whole way from Scioto to Lake Erie.

"From the mouth of Sandusky to the falls, is chiefly first rate land, lying flat or level, intermixed with large bodies of clear meadows, where the grass is exceeding rank, and in many places three or four feet high. The timber is oak, hickory, walnut, cherry, black ash, elm, sugar tree, buckeye, locust and beech. In some places there is wet timber land

-the timber in these places is chiefly water-ash, sycamore or button-wood."

"From the falls to the prairies, the land lies well to the sun; it is neither too flat nor too hilly, and is chiefly first rate; the timber nearly the same as below the falls, excepting the water-ash. There are also here some plats of beech land, that appear to be second rate, as they frequently produce spicewood. The prairie appears to be a tolerably fertile soil, though in many places too wet for cultivation; yet I apprehend it would produce timber, were it only kept from fire.

"The Indians are of the opinion that the squirrels plant all the timber, as they bury a number of nuts for food, and only one at a place. When a squirrel is killed, the various kinds of nuts thus buried, will grow.

"I have observed that when these prairies have only escaped fire for one year, near where a single tree stood, there was a young growth of timber supposed to be planted by squirrels. But when the prairies were again burned, all this young growth was immediately consumed; as the fire rages in the grass to such a pitch that numbers of raccoons are thereby burned to death.

"On the west side of the prairie, or betwixt that and the Scioto, there is a large body of first rate land—the timber, walnut, locust, sugar-tree, buckeye, cherry, ash, elm, mulberry, plum-trees, spice-wood, black haw, red haw, oak and hickory."

After passing the winter on the Olentangy, a tributary of the Scioto, the old Indian and his young companion returned and proceeded down Sandusky, killing in the passage "four bears and a number of turkeys." We quote again:

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- "When we came to the little lake at the mouth of Sandusky, we called at a Wyandot town that was then there, called Sunyendeand, [he speaks as if it was a first visit, whereas we have devoted a large space to his former sojourn there.] Here we diverted ourselves several days by catching rock fish in a small creek, the name of which is also Sunyendeand, which signifies rock fish. They fished in the night with lights, and struck the fish with gigs or spears. The rock fish there, when they begin first to run up the creek to spawn, are exceedingly fat, sufficiently so to fry themselves. The first night we scarcely caught fish enough for present use for all that was in the town.

"The next morning I met with a prisoner at this place by the name of Thompson, who had been taken from Virginia. He told me if the Indians would only omit disturbing the fish for one night, he could catch more fish than the whole town could make use of. I told Mr. Thompson that if he knew he could do this, that I would use my influence with the Indians to let the fish alone for one night. I applied to the chiefs, who agreed to my proposal, and said they were anxious to see what the Great Knife (as they called the Virginian) could do. Mr. Thompson, with the assistance of some other prisoners, set to work, and made a hoop net of elm bark; they then cut down a tree across the creek, and stuck in stakes at the lower side of it to prevent the fish from passing up, leaving only a gap at one side of the creek; here he sat with his net, and when he felt the fish touch the net he drew it up, and frequently would haul out two or three rock fish that would weigh about five or six pounds each. He continued at this until he had hauled out about a wagon load, and then left the gap open, in order to let them pass up, for they could not go far on account of the shallow water.

Before day Mr. Thompson shut it up, to prevent them from passing down, in order to let the Indians have some diversion in killing them in daylight.

"When the news of the fish came to town, the Indians all collected and with surprise beheld the large heap of fish, and applauded the ingenuity of the Virginian. When they saw the number of them that were confined in the water above the tree, the young Indians ran back to the town, and in a short time returned with their spears, gigs, bows and arrows, &c., and were the chief part of that day engaged in killing rock fish, insomuch that we had more than we could use or preserve. As we had no salt or any way to keep them, they lay upon the banks, and after some time great numbers of turkey-buzzards and eagles collected together and devoured them."

But enough of our Ohio Crusoe. His remaining adventures, before his restoration to his friends in 1760, consisted of a trip to Detroit, another hunt up Sandusky and down Scioto, and a journey to Caughnewaga, "a very ancient Indian town about nine miles above Montreal," besides an imprisonment of four months in Montreal. This picture of northern Ohio, a century since, has the merit of novelty at least. That it is authentic, there can be no doubt, for in several historians of authority occur frequent and respectful reference to the narrative from whose pages we have drawn so copiously.

The geography of the last foregoing paragraphs, is less difficult of explanation than in the first portion of the chap ter. The falls of Sandusky are doubtless the same as the rapids mentioned in the treaty of Greenville, near the site of Fremont, and the Sandusky plains, which were burnt over by the ring hunt, are in Marion, Wyandot and Crawford counties.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE SURRENDER OF THE WESTERN POSTS TO ENGLAND.

THE fall of Fort Du Quesne, in 1758, terminated French. dominion upon the Ohio, but the narrative of Forbes' expedition against that important stockade is incomplete, if the adventures of Charles Frederic Post, the Moravian envoy of Pennsylvania to the Ohio tribes, were entirely omitted. The Moravian annals first mention Post as laboring at Shekomeko, in 1743, near the present site of Poughkeepsie, in Eastern New York. He married a baptized Indian woman, was imprisoned in 1745, on an unfounded charge of instigating the New York tribes to join the French, suggested by efforts to learn their dialects; resumed his missionary labors among the Connecticut Indians, and finally sojourned in Pennsylvania, when his influence with the Delaware chiefs was at length recognized by the colonial authorities as their most efficient mediation with the Western tribes. He was accordingly induced to make two expeditions into the heart of the enemy's country in the summer and autumn of 1758, and by his conferences with the representatives of eight nations, withheld them from an attack upon Forbes' expedition, and finally concluded a peace. His route ascended the Susquehanna, crossed to the Alleghany, opposite French creek, and thence to a town on the Big Beaver creek, called "Kushkushkee," containing ninety houses and two hundred Delaware warriors. The decisive conference was held, however, opposite Fort Du 1) History of Moravian Missions, Part ii, p. 37.

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