PARLEY'S MAGAZINE. JANUARY, 1841. AN ADVENTURE OF BRADDOCK'S TIME. THE HE engraving on the opposite page runner arrived with far different intellirepresents a scene in the adventures gence. The battle had not ended when of a Col. James Smith, who was attach- he left the field; but he announced that ed to the army of General Braddock. He the English had been surrounded, and had been captured while the army was were shot down in heaps by an invisible on the march, and was a prisoner in Fort enemy; that instead of flying at once or Du Quesne, now Pittsburgh, when that rushing upon their concealed foe, they celebrated action was fought, called Brad- appeared completely bewildered, huddled dock's Defeat, 1755, in which battle was together in the centre of the ring, and George Washington. The cut represents before sundown there would not be a man some squaws attempting to wash the of them alive. This intelligence fell like white blood out of the Colonel previous a thunderbolt upon Smith, who now saw to making him a chief of their tribe. himself irretrievably in the power of the savages, and could look forward to nothing but torture or endless captivity. He waited anxiously for further intelligence, still hoping the fortune of the day might change. But about sunset he heard at a distance the well-known scalp-halloo, followed by wild, quick, joyful shrieks, and accompanied by long-continued firing. In his narrative of this disastrous defeat Col. Smith says: The Indians stood in crowds at the great gate, armed and painted. Many barrels of powder, ball, flints, &c. were brought out to them, from which each warrior helped himself. They were soon joined by a small detachment of French regulars, when the whole party marched off together. He was confident that they could not exceed four hundred men. He soon learned that it was detached against Braddock, who was within a few miles of the fort; but from their great inferiority in numbers he regarded their destruction as certain, and looked joyfully to the arrival of Braddock in the evening as the hour which was to deliver him from the power of the Indians. In the afternoon however an Indian This too surely announced the fate of the day. About dusk the party returned to the fort, driving before them twelve British regulars, stript naked, and with their faces painted black! an evidence that the unhappy wretches were doomed to death. Next came the Indians displaying their bloody scalps, of which they had immense numbers, and dressed in the scarlet coats, sashes, and cocked hats of the British. Behind all came a train of baggage-horses, laden with piles of scalps, and every kind of accoutrements. The savages appeared frantic with joy, and when Smith beheld them entering the fort dancing, yelling, brandishing their red tomahawks, and waiving their scalps in the air, while the great guns of the fort replied to the incessant peals of rifles without, he says, it looked as if the lower regions had given a holiday, and turned loose upon the upper world. The most melancholy spectacle was the band of prisoners. They appeared dejected and anxious. Poor fellows! They had but a few months before left London, at the command of their officers, and we may easily imagine their feelings at the strange and dreadful spectacle around them. The yells of delight and congratulation were scarcely over, when those of vengeance began. The devoted prisoners- -British regulars-were led out from the fort to the banks of the Allegany, and to the eternal disgrace of the French commandant, were there burnt to death one after another, with the most awful tortures. Smith stood upon the battlements and witnessed the shocking spectacle. The prisoner was tied to a stake, with his hands raised above his head, stripped naked, and surrounded by Indian warriors. They would touch him with red-hot irons, and stick his body full of pine splinters and set them on fire drowning the shrieks of the victim in the yells of delight with which they danced around him. His companions in the mean time stood in a group near the As stake, spectators of what was soon to be executed upon each of themselves. fast as one prisoner died under his tortures, another was compelled to fill his place, until the whole perished. All this took place so near the fort, that every scream of the victims must have rung in the ears of the French commandant. Two or three days after this shocking spectacle, most of the Indian tribes dispersed and returned to their homes, as is usual with them after a great and decisive battle. Young Smith was demanded of the French by the tribe who had captured him, and was immediately surrendered into their hands. The party embarked in canoes, and ascended the Alleghany river as far as a small Indian town about forty miles above fort Fort Du Quesne. There they abandoned their canoes, and, striking into the woods, travelled in a western direction, until they arrived at a considerable Indian town, in what is now Ohio. This village was called Tullihas-and was situated upon the western branch of the Muskingum. During the whole of this period, Smith suffered much anxiety from the uncertainty of his future fate; but at this town all doubt was removed. On the morning of his arrival, the principal members of the tribe gathered around him—and one old man, with deep gravity, began to pluck out the prisoner's hair by the roots, while the others looked on in silence, smoking their pipes with great deliberation. Smith did not understand the de INDIAN CUSTOMS. sign of this singular ceremony, but submitted with great pain and patience to the man's labors, who performed the operation of "picking" him with great dexterity, dipping his fingers in the ashes occasionally, in order to take a better hold. In a very few moments Smith's head was bald, with the exception of a single long tuft upon the centre of his crown, which they call the "scalp lock." This was carefully plaited in such a manner, as to stand upright, and 'was ornamented with several silver brooches. His ears and nose were then bored with great gravity, and ornamented with a profusion of ear-rings and nose-jewels. He was ordered to strip; which being done, his body was painted in various fantastic colours, and a breech-cloth fastened around his loins. A belt of wampum was then placed around his neck, and silver bands about his right arm. To all this Smith submitted with silent anxiety, being totally ignorant of their customs, and dreading lest, like the other British prisoners, he had been stripped and painted for the stake. His alarm was further increased, when an old chief arose, took him by the arm, and, leading him out into the open air, gave three shrill whoops, and was instantly surrounded by every inhabitant of the village-warriors, women, and children. The chief then addressed the crowd in a long speech, still holding Smith by the hand. When he had ceased speaking, he led Smith forward, and delivered him into the hands of three young Indian girls, who, grappling him by the arms without ceremony, towed him off to the river which ran at the foot of the hill, dragged him into the water up to his breast, and all three suddenly clapping their hands upon his head, attempted to put him under. Utterly desperate at the idea of being drowned by these young ladies, Smith made a manful resistance; the squaws persevered, and a prodigious splashing in the water took place, amidst loud peals of laughter from the shore. יין At length, one of the squaws became alarmed at the furious struggles and opposition of the young white man, and cried out earnestly several times, "No hurt you! no hurt you Upon this agreeable intelligence, Smith's resistance ceased, and these gentle creatures plunged him under the water, and scrubbed him from head to foot with equal zeal and perseverance. They then led him ashore, and presented him to the chief-shivering with cold and dripping with water. The Indians dressed him in a ruffled shirt, leggins, and moccasins, variously ornamented, seated him upon a bearskin, and gave him a pipe, tomahawk, tobacco, pouch, flint and steel. The chiefs then took their seats by his side, and smoked for several minutes in deep silence, when the eldest delivered a speech, through an interpreter, in the following words : My son, you are now one of us. Hereafter, you have nothing to fear. By an ancient custom, you have been adopt ed in the room of a brave man, who has fallen; and every drop of white blood has been washed from your veins. We are now your brothers, and are bound by our law to love you, to defend you, and to avenge your injuries, as much as if you were born in our tribe." He was then introduced to the members of the family into which he had been adopted, and was received by the whole of them with great demonstrations of regard. In the evening, he received an invitation to a great feast-and was there presented with a wooden bowl and spoon, and directed to fill the former from a huge kettle of boiled corn and hashed venison. The evening concluded with a war-dance. On the next morning, the warriors of the tribe assembled, and, leaving one or two hunters to provide for their families in their absence, the rest marched off for the frontiers of Virginia.-Fam. Mag. After a residence with this tribe of Indians for about thirty-four years, Smith escaped in 1789 and settled in Bourbon county, Kentucky. We ought to have mentioned, that a part of Braddock's army was saved by Washington, at that time a Colonel, and but 23 years of age. THE DANCE OF TORCHES A curious ceremony observed at Royal Marriages in Prussia AS soon as their majesties rose from table, the whole company returned into the white hall; whence the altar was removed, and the room was illuminated with fresh wax lights. The musicians were placed on a stage of solid silver. Six generals and six ministers of state stood each with a white wax torch in his hand, ready to be lighted, in conformity to a ceremony used in the German courts on these occasions, which is called 'The Dance of Torches.' This dance was opened by the new married prince and princess who made the tour of the hall, saluting the king and company. Before them went the ministers and generals, two and two, with their lighted torches. The princess then gave her hand to the king, and the prince his to the queen ; the king gave his hand to his mother, and the queen to the prince; and in this manner all the princes and princesses that were present, one after the other, and according to their rank, led up the dance, making the tour of the hall. The novelty of this performance, and the quality of the performers, made it very agreeable : otherwise the extreme gravity of the dance itself, with the continual round and formal pace of the dancers, the frequent going out of the torches, and the clangour of the trumpets that rent the ear, all these make it too much resemble the dance of the Sarmates, the ancient inhabitants of the prodigious woods of Germany. GYMNASTICS: OR SPORTS FOR YOUTH. NOW, boys, before I begin my 17th out, and bring your right fist to the left exercise, I hope to hear you are per- shoulder. Do it with spirit, boys-again fect in my former lessons. If so, I will and again. give you the following exercises. 17. Who can do this well? Not one at first, except myself. I shall set you all laughing, and you will laugh at each other too. Try-hands on hips-feet close-stand on toes-bend your knees very slowly, and lower your body so, till your thighs touch your heels, like an indian chief. Mind-keep your knees quite close, and your body quite upright-now rise very gradually. Ah! there you are, all swimming on dry land. Never mind, try again. 18. This next will exercise the muscles of your chest. Bring the left fist to the front of the right shoulder, and at the same time extending the right arm with a quick motion, thus, in a line with the shoulder-now throw the left arm sharply |