History of Saginaw county, Michigan; together with ... portraits ... and biographies ... History of Michigan ...

42

HISTORY OF MICHIGAN.

of whas was going on without. He saw the dead scalped and mangled, the dying in writhing agony under the insatiate knife and
tomahawk, and the savages drinking human blood from the hollow
of their joined hands! Mr. Heary almost felt as if he were a victim himself, so intense were his sufferings. Soon the Indian fiends
began to halloo, " All is finished!" At this instant Henry heard
some of the Indians enter the house in which he had taken shelter.
The garret was separated from the room below by only a layer of
single boards, and Mr. Henry heard all that was said. As soon as
the Indians entered they inquired whether there were any Englishpien in the house. Mr. Langlade replied that he could not say;
they might examine for themselves. He then conducted them to
the garret door. As the door was locked, a moment of time was
snatched by Mr. Henry to crawl into a heap of birch-bark vessels
in a dark corner; and although several Indians searched around the
garret, one of them coming within arm's length of the sweating
prisoner, they went out satisfied that no Englishman was there.
As Mr. Henry was passing the succeeding night in this room he
could think of no possible chance of escape from the country. He
was out of provisions, the nearest post was Detroit, 400 miles away,
and the route thither lay through the enemy's country. The next
morning he heard Indian voices below informing Mr. Langlade that
they had not found an Englishman named Henry among the dead,
and that they believed him to be somewhere concealed. Mrs. L.,
believing that the safety of the household depended on giving up
the refugee to his pursuers, prevailed on her husband to lead the
Indians up stairs, to the room of Mr. H. The latter was saved from
instant death by one of the savages adopting him as a " brother,"
in the place of one lost. The Indians were all mad with liquor,
however, and Mr. H. again very narrowly escaped death. An hour
afterward he was taken out of the fort by an Indian indebted to himn
for goods, and was under the uplifted knife of the savage when he
suddenly broke away from him and made back to Mr. Langlade's
house, barely escaping the knife of the Indian the whole distance.
The next day he, with three other prisoners, were taken in a canoe
toward Lake Michigan, and at Fox Point, 18 miles distant, the
Ottawas rescued the whites, through spite at the Chippewas, saying that the latter contemplated killing and eating them; but the
next day they were returned to the Chippewas, as the result of some
kind of agreement about the conduct of the war. He was rescued
again by an old friendly Indian claiming him as a brother. Tile
next morning he saw the dead bodies of seven whites dragged forth
from the prison lodge he had just occupied. The fattest of these
dead bodies was actually served up and feasted on, directly before
the eyes of Mr. Henry.
Through the partiality of the Ottawas and complications of military affairs among the Indians, Mr. Henry, after severe exposures
and many more thrilling escapes, was finally landed within territory occupied by whites.