Rensselaer Union, Volume 12, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 October 1879 — A DEER HUNT. [ARTICLE]

A DEER HUNT.

A lick* 4 is a salt spring, so called by loader* because wild animals resort to itTLnd lick the briny ground. The writer has seen the vicinity of such springs ’trodden by the beasts of the forest as hard as a cattle-yard. A singular trait of many wild creatures is never to seek drink or salt by daylight, instinct seeming to tell that safety requires such visits to be made at night. The incident I am about to relate occurred in Ohio,, in the autumn of 1812, while the Indians were on the warpath; but as the settlement where it happened was not so far to the front as many others, it was not thought to be ia so’ 'great danger. However, every family was provided with arms, and a log fort had been built as a defense in cflse of need. „one day, just at dusk, Robert Page and his son Jimmy, an athletic lad of sixteen, posted tfiemselves on a rude scaffolding twenty or thirty feet from the ground, in an enormous branching tree within short gun-shot of,a lick. From this perch a clear view opened toward the lick, while on moonlight nights the trodden space was distinctly visible. Here they bad often concealed themselves to obtain venison for the family, and, having fixed their guns in rest, remained., as silent as the. tfflha around until the game appeared. On the night in question, several ihours passed while our hunters listened pntcntqr for noises denoting the aproach of game. At last toe boy’s qnick hearing detected footsteps. Distant and faint at first, they steadily drew nearer, but, at the same time, they were so heavy and inelastic, unlike the steps of wild animals, that the listeners were mystified, if not alarmed. On they came, trampling through the woods, and as they emerged into the moonlight, in the vacant spot near the spring, Mr. Page and Jimmy counted a war party of sixteen Indians. Much to their surprise, the red men halted, and, building a fire on the hard-trodden ground, proceeded to broil venison, roast % nuts and parch corn. While eating they kept up an jncessant jabbering, enough of it being understood by Mr. Page to prove that they were on the way to attack the settlement, at daybreak. Of course, upon ihe discovery of this bloody purpose, the two whites were overwhelmed by their feelings, for the first house in the settlement was their own, scarcely a mile distant, where Mrs. Page and several children would be easy victims. What shonld be done? To descend from their covert and hurry on to* give alarm seemed impossible without befog heard by the Indians. To fire on them would avail but little, and would not save the settlement from attack.

Much smothered whispering passed between father and son before a decision was reached. Often they sighted their guns at the Indians, almost resolved to begin the fray at all hazards. But at lefcgt* Hr. Page, himself unfitted by rheumatism for such an attempt, relurtawljfaponscnted to Jimmy’surgency, and thebrave lad undertook the dangerous experiment of descending and flying to alarm the settlement Removing his heavy home-made boots and leaving his, gun, he began, with the stealth of a cat, to make nis way to the ground. - The savages were not sixty feet distant and the least noise would reach their ears, arouse their suspicions, and start them on a search. But he was equal to the occasion and, after several minutes of intense listening, the father knew by a faitit rustling that his boy had reached the leaf-covered earth. But now came a greater peril; for one can hardly walk in the woods without snapping twigs and disturbing leaves. At the foot of the slope, six or eight rods below, ran a wide, shallow brqok, and if he could reach that in saferf the rest of the trip would be less by step he felt the way with his naked feet, yet not without the Indiana 'grpnt,, significantly, and the father HwMMpflrlhefjDnMAiences. Once there came such a sound from the direction of the brook that two or three skrages sprang to their guns, but Mr. Page made a noise like the snort of a frightened deer, drawing their attention to a different course and cause, and soon their suspicions subsided. At length Jimmy stepped into the cool stream, and felt sure of the balance of his task. Still he proceeded with the greatest caution until he knew he was beyond the hearing of the savages, when he fled like the wind to warn the settlement. Arriving at home, it took but a moment to arouse the family and start , them for the blockhouse, or fort. Then he sped on to other cabins and gave the alarm, until, in a little longer time than it takes to tell it, the whole settlement

WM warned and flocking into the fort. Men came armed and stem for the fight, women with their tender babes and children, frowsy-headed and half clothed as they had tumbled oat of their trundle-beds. Such alarms and night scenes on the borders are among the S d “ p “” i “ A “ ric “ The plan of defense adopted by the settlers on this occasion wm an ambuscade. All the women and children were committed to the blockhouse under the care of half a doaen of the elderly men, while the able-bodied fighters concealed themselves in the Toghouse of Mr. Page, the first likely to be attacked. Long before daybreak this plan wm ready for execution, the little log fort being securely closed, the defenseless within it, and some twenty trusty guns waiting in the cabin to give the red men a welcome. But we must return to the hunter in the tree and the unsuspecting foe by the deer-lick. After Jimmy left, Mr. Page laid his plans to descend as soon as the Indians started, and, following in their rear, take a hand in the fight which he expected to occur. Slowly the night 1 passed, the moonlight growing fainter | until he could no longer see the savages. I At length, when morning wm evidentlynear, he heard them take up the line of march, their stealthy tread quickly passing away toward the settlement. It was but an instant's work for him to clamber down and follow them, taking, however, a somewhat different route, so as not to fall into their hands if any of them should linger on the way. When he came to the clearing a quarter of a mile from his own house, he hid himself and waited for circumstances to develop his part in the fray. He had not long to wait. Just as. it became light enough to sight a gun, a musket shot and then several together broke on the silence, but with such a smothered sound that his practiced ear knew that they were fired from within a house, and hence were the guns of the white men. At the same instant several warwhoops burst on the air, but in a tone indicating surprise and alarm. These sounds explained the ambuscade to Mr. Page, and knowing the Indian habit of retreating singly and not in company from a defeat, he kept sharp watch from his hiding-place and, in a few moments, saw a warrior running toward the woods to escape. With unerring aim he sent a bullet after the fugitive. Hardly had he reloaded when another similar * target appeared, and met the same fate. Other shots were heard in the direction of the house, and soon a third savage, hurrying toward the forest, passed within range of our hunter’s rifle and was stopped forever. At length a general silence prevailed, and Mr. Page, leaving his hiding-place, crept slyly toward the scene of tne principal fight. Ere long he met some of the neighbors, and together they continued to search for the savages. But it was found that they had fled from the clearing, all except the slain, eleven in number. Not a white person was injured. . In the afternoon a burial trench was dog on a little knoll on the Page farm, ana the bodies of the, red men solemnly laid therein; then a log fence was built about it, and the little enclosure, still E reserved, is known to this day as “The ndi&n graveyard.” Jimmy died in the autumn of 1870, a venerable, white-haired patriarch, and at his own request was buried in the same enclosure.— Rev. J. L. Beman, in __ ]KjJamlu _______ ** ■ ■ •nr --w*