Voices; Birth-Marks; The Man and the Elephant Part 15

After the battle of Point Pleasant the Indians had repaired to Shauane-Town, where Cornstalk convened a general council.

His advice was that they slay their women and children and then fight until all were slain. Some of the chiefs seemed not to dread surrender to Lord Dunmore and his proposition was met with silent disapprobation.

Finding the Indians either disheartened or apathetic or anxious for peace, he drove his tomahawk into a log, the sign of submission, and said: "I will sue for peace."

The peace council was held at Fort Charlotte. Lord Dunmore and the Indians had no difficulty in coming to terms. All the chiefs of prominence were represented except Logan. He had opposed making peace and disdained to be seen among the suppliants at Fort Charlotte; but lest the sincerity of the treaty should be distrusted, he sent by messenger (John Gibson) the following speech to be delivered to Lord Dunmore:

"I appeal to any white man to say, if ever he entered Logan's cabin hungry and he gave him not meat; if ever he came cold and naked and he clothed him not. During the last long and b.l.o.o.d.y war, Logan remained idle in his cabin, an advocate for peace. Such was my love for the whites that my countrymen pointed as they pa.s.sed and said: 'Logan is the friend of the white man.' I had even thought to have lived with you but for the injuries of one man. Colonel Cresap, the last spring, in cold blood and unprovoked, murdered all the relatives of Logan, not sparing my women and children. There runs not a drop of my blood in the veins of any living creature. This called on me for revenge. For my country I rejoice at the beams of peace. But do not harbor the thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never felt fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan? Not one."

At the peace conference, in the absence of Logan, the usual Speaker, Cornplanter presented the cause of the Indians. He began by complaining of the white men who had disregarded their treaties; settling upon Indian lands without even an offer of purchase; even upon soil which by treaty had been reserved as sacred from settlement or incursion, then continued: "* * * and have robbed again and again and murdered Indians and their families while peacefully hunting. For years we have patiently endured these wrongs, till at length we were driven into this b.l.o.o.d.y war. We do not wish for war; we wish for peace. We know the power of the white man and that he can overpower the Indian. But this is a white man's war. Yet had we not resented the wrongs done us even the white man would have despised us for cowardice."

CHAPTER VI.-The Children.

Logan had brought the two captive children directly to Shauane-Town. As they were too young to effect their escape, they were allowed to wander at will in and around the village, where they played with and were treated as the native children.

A week after his return, at a tribal council he referred to the ma.s.sacre of his family at the mouth of Yellow Creek, spoke of his present loneliness and asked to adopt the two children as his own, saying: "* *

* They are so young they will soon forget their own people and language and I shall bring them up as my own children." His request having been granted the two children were brought before the council.

The adoption of the girl was quite simple; she was stripped of her clothing and sent out naked to play with the other little girls. The boy's adoption was more formal. After being stripped he was seated in the center of the council; two old squaws, called in for the purpose, deliberately plucked out his curls, strand by strand, until only the scalp lock was left; a small tuft, three inches in diameter on his crown, which was stiffened and discolored with an ointment of graphite and bear grease, then certain tribal designs were painted upon his body with the juice of the pucc.o.o.n root. This completed the ceremony.

They were just sending him out, when a very old and highly respected medicine man, the chief priest of the nation, and to whom were attributed occult powers of a high order; came into the council hall and walking over to the boy, stooped and removed from his neck a gold chain to which was attached a cross of ebony and pearl; this he examined carefully. Then turning to the council he said: "This child is of the sacred priesthood. He has the look in his face and eyes and his body is without blemish, as is required by the order. Let no one do him harm or cross his will, because in what he does he will be guided by the Great Spirit. The night before Logan brought him I saw the boy in a dream and was told of his coming and his mission. It is one of peace. He will be the friend of all men; of Long Knives and Indians alike. He does not know your language and will be carried home by Logan before the flying of the cahonks or the first snow-fall. By then he will speak your tongue as well as your own children and will never forget a word. It is the will of the Great Spirit. In proof that what I say is true, as he steps over the threshold of your council lodge he will drop as one dead; and for some days will lie in coma. When this pa.s.ses he will not speak the language of the Long Knives so long as he remains with you. You will see in him many things that are strange; because his are a mind and spirit that see where yours cease seeing."

After mumbling certain incantations which no one understood, he drew from his girdle a case made from a hollow bone and taking from it needles of fish bone and certain pigments; tattooed upon the chest of the boy an enlarged likeness of the cross he wore; and beneath it p.r.i.c.ked the tribal sign of the Mingo priesthood. All this the little boy endured without outcry, though his face was ashy pale and his colorless lips moved in prayer.

Then the priest took from his own waist a girdle of wampum of unusual pattern and fastened it about the waist of the boy and extending his hands above the boy's head, murmured yet more of his incantations. Then indicating the ceremony was completed, walked away.

The boy was told to go to his lodge. As he stepped over the threshold he dropped apparently lifeless; and no wonder; he had been subjected to a terrible strain and his blood was filled with impure pigments.

He was carried by Logan to their lodge and placed upon a pallet of deer skins. An old woman was called to attend him. He lay in a deep sleep until sundown, when he sat up and was given food and drink. A few minutes later he dropped back into unconsciousness which lasted for eighteen hours; at the end of which time, rousing from his torpor, he walked to a brook, where he bathed, removing all the grease and pigment.

The tattooed cross and Mingo tribal signs stood out upon his body like a great blotch of blood on a statue of white marble. He returned to his pallet, smiled at Dorothy and after eating slept again.

For several days he was in a stupor and slept much of the time. At the end of a week the tattooed marks were no longer inflamed and he had recovered.

Not far from the village on the brow of a hill was a green mound, which rumor said was a place of burial; though the Indians knew not what people had made or used it. As the view from its summit was extensive, the timber having been burned away, the mound was used for signal fires and because of superst.i.tion, never visited except for that purpose.

John Calvin, who was the only child in the village permitted to go where he pleased, even to the council lodge and that of the medicine man, each day climbed to the summit and for an hour or more sat upon the signal rock, scarcely moving, lost in dreams or visions. The whole tribe watched him with superst.i.tious awe.

Rumor of the child's strange conduct spread throughout the Mingo nation and fierce, wild chiefs and warriors would watch him seated in silence upon the mound and as he walked about the village deferentially made room for him. They said: "The boy is so different from other Long Knives, he says nothing, they talk all the time."

Dorothy grew half afraid of her old playmate, who when she spoke to him in English answered by a word or two in the Mingo tongue if he answered at all, having very quickly picked up a few common words. When he was not alone upon the mound they would go to the playground of the children and listen to and watch them. It was thus they learned to speak the language, he very quickly and Dorothy more slowly. In a little while they were playing with the Indian children, usually on or in the river; and both soon learned to swim and to paddle about in small canoes.

While they were prisoners at Shauane-Town the widow of Pukes.h.i.+rrwan, whose husband was killed in the battle of Point Pleasant, gave birth to three posthumous children, one of whom was the Prophet. Dorothy grew very fond of the three little babies and spent much of her time playing the part of nurse to them.

Tec.u.mseh, a brother of the three babies, was of the same age and a playfellow of the prisoners. Between them a friends.h.i.+p grew up, which lasted until he was killed at the battle of the Thames.

These Indian children were of the family or totem of the Panther. The name Tec.u.mseh for a while was applied to all the male children of the family and meant flying across. When John Calvin was dedicated to the priesthood, he was adopted into their family instead of Logan's; and under the cross on his breast was inscribed the sign of the Panther.

The young prisoners throughout the summer into mid-September ran naked, grew dark of skin and lapsed into the habits and speech of the Indian children. It seemed they were beginning to forget their own people. They were even taken with a hunting party into the country south of the "Oyo"

into the land Kentucke, given in Charlevoix's map of New France as the "Pays du Chouarrons" (Land of the Shauanese). Here while hunting, a fawn closely pursued ran to John Calvin, who put his arms about it and would not let it be killed. After the hunters left he turned it loose.

When the weather grew frosty they were dressed in doe skin clothing and moccasins, ornamented as those of a chief's children; and slept on a bear skin wrapped in a vividly colored blanket, purchased from a French trader at Chicasaw Falls.

One morning in early November they were roused from sleep by Logan and told they were to be carried home across the great mountain. Many of the tribe gathered to see them off. Tec.u.mseh gave John a bow, quiver and arrows and to Dorothy beaded moccasins. The priest took the old girdle from around him and in its place subst.i.tuted a new one; which in sign language recited that he had been adopted into the family of the Panther and belonged to the Mingo priesthood. He was told to preserve and wear it and that no Indian henceforth would harm him.

The children were placed upon a doe skin pallet in the bottom of the canoe; then Logan and the two Indians who had helped kidnap them took their seats in the canoe, which, shoved from the sh.o.r.e, glided out into the river, and was soon paddled out of sight around a bend of the river; their Indian friends standing on the bank and watching until it disappeared.

Twelve days later they reached the head of canoe travel on the Kanawha and rested for the night. The next morning at first light, Logan with the two children, leaving the two Indians, traveled eastward along a narrow trail, following the stream until it became a mountain torrent, das.h.i.+ng in spray over boulders and down declivities. At night they slept at its very head under an overhanging cliff, from the foot of which the river's first waters gurgled forth.

Mid-afternoon of the next day they crossed the divide through the pa.s.s; and from a projecting rock on the eastern slope saw again their own home and below in the Valley, the church and school house of the settlement.

Richard Cameron was milking the cows. He saw Jerry run up the mountain path and heard several glad, sharp barks. He looked up and saw an Indian, whom he recognized as Logan, and accompanying him two small Indian children.

The children ran forward, the dog barking and frisking at their heels.

When they were near they called out: "h.e.l.lo, Richard! h.e.l.lo, Mr. Mason!"

and together they all ran to the house.

For the moment Logan was forgotten. He seated himself on a log near the gate. In a short while Captain Campbell came out and cordially though formally greeted him. He remained some weeks a welcome guest.

Mrs. Campbell was too happy to sleep soundly that night. Sometime after midnight, she heard the "Cahonk, cahonk" of the wild geese flying southward, the first of the season.

CHAPTER VII.-Diamond Cut Diamond.

The purpose of the easy going settler of Virginia in coming to America was not to find religious freedom, but to better his financial condition. He parted from old England with regret; found the same church in Virginia he had left at home; lived under the same laws and in many ways under the same conditions. He venerated the laws of England and contributed without grumbling towards the support of the Established Church under a general taxation system for that purpose; but appeals by his clergy to curtail privileges granted by acts of toleration aroused no such zeal as was exhibited by his New England non-conformist brother in his att.i.tude towards Baptist and Quaker.

America was fallow soil for new thought; and the first seed sown was that which led to the first const.i.tutional amendment. Sowers of new thought, argued: "You cannot by law control men in their att.i.tude of mind and heart toward G.o.d. Religious freedom must come. It is an inalienable right and cannot be denied. It is useless for the state to disturb itself by enacting rules of regulation." Finally they threatened: "To obtain this right you will force us to support the new issue of local self-government; and if the two, religious freedom and self-government for the colony join forces, it means war."

So the dissenters, and particularly the Presbyterians, in the first instance, contending for religious freedom only, were forced into the newer controversy to procure the old; and to such an extent were the issues a.s.similated, that the English correctly attributed the Revolution to the Presbyterians. Walpole, addressing parliament made the statement: "Cousin America has run away with a Presbyterian parson."

The first act of toleration was pa.s.sed in 1699. The Act of 1705 provided that if a person denied the existence of G.o.d or the Trinity or the divine authority of the scriptures or a.s.serted there are more G.o.ds than one; upon conviction of the first offense was deprived of the right to hold an office of trust or emolument; upon the second conviction he was denied the right to sue or to inherit property or to act as trustee for any person or estate and was subject to a sentence of three years'

imprisonment; his own children could be taken from him and placed in more orthodox hands; upon the third conviction he was put to death, though this statute was never invoked.

Before 1750 the spirit of the clergy of the English Church had subsided into moderation; and the dissenter or non-conformist preacher had grown more aggressive; though the laws against him were still oppressive.

Rev. Francis MaKemie established the first Presbyterian churches in the Virginia colony. He was forced repeatedly to appear before the magistrates and once before the Governor; and is accredited with having obtained the first act of toleration in 1699; though Samuel Davies is looked upon as the founder of the Presbyterian Church in Virginia; and to him and Thomas Jefferson, more than to any other men, thanks are due for services in behalf of religious liberty.

From 1732, dissenters, in the main Presbyterians, began to settle the great Valley of Virginia. Within ten years from the establishment of the first Presbyterian church there were Presbyterian churches in nine of the then few counties; they had also obtained promises from the authorities not to disturb them in their wors.h.i.+p; though this was a protection guaranteed by the Act of Toleration then in force.

The Presbyterian Synod meeting in Philadelphia in 1738, pet.i.tioned the Governor of Virginia that Presbyterians of the valley might have "the free enjoyment of their civil and religious liberties." They received a favorable reply; which stimulated the emigration of Presbyterians into the valley not only from the less liberal colonies but from the Old Country.

Samuel Davies, protected by compliance with the Act of Tolerance, came to Virginia when but twenty-three years of age and immediately went to work establis.h.i.+ng churches. He appeared before the Virginia committee which under a show of compliance with the law, licensed as few non-conformist ministers as was possible; and from that body procured licenses for several ministers and permits to establish several churches in new territory. In the General Court of Virginia, where he was forced to appear; he argued that not only inherently but by the Act of Toleration, applicants for the ministry must be granted the power and place to preach. In this he was opposed by Peyton Randolph, then attorney general for the colony, and though he lost the case was said to have had the better of the argument. He procured from the attorney general of the Mother Country an opinion to the effect that the English law of Toleration, somewhat broader than the colonial, was applicable to, and the law of, the colony. Eventually his fight procured for Presbyterians a liberal interpretation of the Act.

He was always careful to declare that his opposition was not to the Church of England but the clergy, expressing himself "as not against the peculiar rights and ceremonies of the English Church, much less against their excellent articles; but against the general strain of the doctrine delivered from the pulpit, in which their articles were opposed or not mentioned."

His was a fight, not only for religious liberty, but for the supremacy of Christ in the church, the authenticity of the Bible, equal rights under the law for all denominations and individual right to freedom of conscience.