Rising Sun Times, Volume 1, Number 46, Rising Sun, Ohio County, 27 September 1834 — Page 1

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Till: AFRICAN CHIEF. l:r WIIMAM CCI.I.AX F.RTA.NT. Chained in the market place he stood A m:in of gi;int frame, ' Amid the gathering multitude That shrunk to hear hi- name. All frrn of look !inl 'Inn;; of limli His dark eye on the crnur.i! ' Anil silently they looked oi him, As on n. lion bound. Vainly, hut well, that chi, f had fonM lie was a, rnplirc now ; "i et pride, that fortune humbles not, Was written on hi brow; The scars his dark broad bosom wo:o, Showed warrior trae and brave; A Prince anionic bis tribe before, He could not be a s!,vc. T!icn to the conqueror he snake " My brother is a King;' Undo this necklace from my neck. And take this bracelet rincr, And take me where mv brother rein-, And I will (51! thy h;inds 'With tor of ivory from the plains, And gold dust from the sand." 4Xot for thy ivory nor thy gold Will I unbind thy chainThat bloody band shall never hold The battle spear again. A price thy nation never gave Shall jet be paid for thee; Tor thou shall be the Christian's slave, In lands beyond the sea." Then wept the warrior chic f, and bade To shred his locks away ; And, one by one, e:uh heavy braid Before the victor lay. Thick were the plaited locks and lon-, And deltly hidden there Shone many a we. Ire of -:M among The dark and crisped b.iir. 'Look! feast thy greedy ee vith oM Long kept for sorest need, Take it thou a'kest sums tinlold And say that I am freed. Take it my M ile the lour, long day, Weeps by the cocoa tree, And my yonns children lease their p'.av And a-k in vain for me." ' I t ike thy gold but I have made Thy fetters fast and strong, And mean that by the cocoa shade Thy wife shall wait tl.ee lute.'.' Strong was thearony that shook The captive's trame to bear. And the proud moaning of hi look Was cliangtd to mortal fear. Hi heart was broken crarcil his brain. At once hi eye trow wild IleMrugghd fiercely with his hair, Whimpered, and wept, and smiled ; Yet w ore not long; those fatal bands, Kor once at shut of day, They drew him foith upon the sands, They foul hyena's prey ! IIIJADDOCK'S DEFEAT. The following ..ketch of the French account of this affair, is from Spatk's edition of lh? writing of Washington, and will he. found interesting. It correspond? generally with that given hy (en. Lafayette, of the same aiTiir, while 1 ist in this country, hut' differs in one pm'tit. It seems ('apt. Beaujeu, who suggested and led tlie expedition from fort Da (Jticsne, was killed, and that the victory was completed by Captain Dumas; and it must have been from tin; latter that the Monsieur De Contrccrur snatched the laurels. "No circumstantial account of this affair has ever hren published by the French, or has it hitherto been known from any authentic source what numbers were engaged on either side. Washington conjectured, as stated in his letters, that there were no more than three hundred, and Dr. Franklin, in his account of the battle, considers them at most as not exceeding four hundred. The truth U, there was no accurate information on the subject, and writers have been obliged to rely on conjecture. In the archives of the "War Department, at Paris, I found three separate narratives of this event, written at the time, all brief and imperfect, but one of them apparently drawn up by a person on the spot. From these I have collected the following particulars: M. de Contrecrrur, the commandant of fort Du Quesne, received intelli gence of the arrival of Gen. Braddock, and the British regiments in Virginia After his removal from Wills creek, French and Indian scouts were con stantly abroad, who watched his mo tions, reported the progress of his march and the route he was pursuing. His army was represented to consist of 3000 men. M. de Lontrccceur was hes itating what measures to take, believing his small force entirely inadequate to encounter so formimable an enemy when M. de Beaujeu, a captain in the French service, proposed to head a de tachment of French and Indians, and meet the enemy in their march. The consent of the Indians was first to be obtained. A large body of them r" then encamped in the vicinitr J tne fort, and M.dc Beauje-. op-.ed to them hisPlan,nd requeued their air. This

PLEDGED TO NO r.VRTY's ARBITRARY SWAT, We'll FOLLOW

i:isi:y si iv, ixdiaiva, satckday, sd:itiiki:ii 27, is:n.

they at first declined, giving as a reason the superior force of the enemy, and the impossibility of success. But at the pressing solicitation of M. de Boanjou, they agreed to hold a council upon the subject, and to talk wiih him again the next morning. They still adhered to their Inst decision, and when M. de Beanjeu went out among them to inquire the result of their deliberation, they told him a second time that they could not go. This was a severe disappointment to M. de Beaujeu, who had set his heart upon the enterprise, and was resolved to prosecute it. Being a man of great good nature, affability and ardor, and much beloved by the savages, he said to them, ''I am determined to go out and meet the enemy. What! will jou suffer your father to go out alnnr? 1 am sure we shall conquer.''" With this spirited language, delivered in a manner that pleased the I nd inns, and won upon their confidence, he subdued their unwillingness, and they agreed to accompany him. It was now on the 7th of June, and the news came that the English were within six leagues of the fort. This lay and the next were spent in making preparations and reeonnoitcring the ground for the attack. Two other captains, Dumas and Liguery, were joined with M. de Bean jeu, and also four lieutenants, six ensigns, and two cadets. On the morning of the 'Jlh, they were all in readiness, and began their march at an early hour. It seems to have been their first intention to make a stand at the ford, and annoy the English while crossing the river, and then retreat to the ambuscade on the side of the hill, where the contact actually commenced. The trees on the hank of the river alforded a good opportunity to ttfect this manneuvcr, in the Indian mode of warfare, since the artillery could be of little avail against an enemy where every man was protected by a tree, and at the same time the English would be exposed to a point blank musket shot in fording the river. As it happened, however, M. dc Beauou and his party did not arrive in time to execute this part of the plan. 7 he English were preparing to cross the river, w hen the French and Indians reached the defiles on the rising ground where they posted themselves, and waited till Braddock's advanced columns came up. This was a signal for the attack, which was made at first in front, and repelled by so heavy a dis charge from the British, that the Indians believed it proceeded from artille ry, and shewed symptoms of wavering md retreat. At this moment M. de eanjeu was killed, and the command levolving on M. Duma?, he showed great presence of mind in rallying the ndians, and ordered his othcers to lead them to the wings and attack the enemy in llank, while he with the French troops would maintain the position in front. The order was promptly obeyed, and the attack became general. The action was warm and severely contested for a long time; hut the Engish fought in the European method, ti ring at random, which had little effect in the woods, while the Indians fired from concealed places, took aim, and ahnot every shot brought down a man. The English columns soon got into con fusion. I he veil of savages, with which the woods resounded, struck terror into the hearts of the soldiers, till at cngth they took to flight, and resisted all endeavors of their officers to restore any degree of order in their escape. The rout was complete, and the field of battle was left covered with the dead and wounded, and all the artillery, ammunition, provisions and baggage of the English army. The Indians gave themselves up to pillage, which prevented them from pursuing the English in their disastrous flight. Such is the substance of the accounts written at the time by the French offi cers, and sent home to their government. In regard to the numbers engaged, there are rather some slight va riations in the three statements. The largest number reported is 250 French and Canadians, and 641 Indians, ana the smallest, 2.33 French and Canadi ans, nnl ooo Indians. If we take a medium, it will make the whole num bcr fcd o"t by M. de Beaujeu, at least wO. In an imperfect return, three of ficers were said to be killed, and four wounded; about 30 soldiers and Indi ans killed, and as manv wounded. When these facts tire taken into viev?

TRUTH

the result of the action will appear less wonderful, than has generally been supposed. And this wonder will be still diminished, when another circumstance is referred to, worthy of particular consideration, and that is the shape of the ground on which the battle was fought. This part of the description, so essential to the understanding of military operations, and above all, in the present instance, has never been touched upon, it is believed, by anv w riter. We have seen that Brnddock's advanced columns, after crossing the valley, extending for nearly half a mile from the margin of the river, began to move up a hill, so uniform in its ascent, that it was little else than an inclined plane of a somewhat inclining form. Down this inclined surface extended two ravines, beginning near together, at about 150 yards from the bottom of the hill, and proceeding in different directions till they terminated in the valley below. In these ravines the French and Indians were concealed and protected. At this day they are from eight to ten feet deep, and sufficient in extent to contain at least a thousand men. At the time of the battle, the gtound was covered with trees and long grass, so that the ravines were hidden 'from view, till they were approached within a few feet. Indeed, at the present day, although the place is cleared from trees and converted info pasture, they are perceptible only at a very short distance. By this knowledge of the peculiarities of the battle ground, the mystery that the British conceived themselves to be contending with an invisible foe, is solved. Such was literally the fact. They were so paraded between the ravines, that their whole front and right flank were exposed to the incessant fire of the enemy, who discharged their muskets over the edges of the ravines, concealed during that operation, by the grass and bushes, and protected hy an invincible barrier be low the surface of the earth. W illiam Butler, a veteran soldier still living. (1332,) who was in this action, and af terwards at the Plains of Abraham, said to me, "Wre could only tell where the enemy were by the smoke of their muskets." A few scattering Indians were behind trees, and some were kil led in venturing out to take scalps, hut much the larger portion fought wholly in the ravines." CVttlOUS HISTORICAL MEMORANDA. Mr. Sparks, in his lectures at Boston, on the early life of Washington, stated that an old gentleman named Frazier, is still living in Pennsylvania, who was at Braddock's defeat, in 1755, in the corps under Washington's command. He is probably the last survivor of that bloody day, and cannot be much less than 100 years of age, which would make him 22 at the fight. This veteran gives a new version of part of the transactions of the day. He says he had two brothers with him in the battle, who were both officers; that Braddock, during the hottest of the contest, probably in an infuriated state of mind, ordered one of them to charge with his men upon a certain dangerous point of the invisible enemy's lines which he refused; thatBraddock thereupon run him through the body with his sword; and that the other brother then levelled a musket at Braddock, as he sat on his horse, and shot him dead on the spot. Whether the old gentleman has been formerly in the habit of telling this story, does not appear; probably not. We have no reason, however, for disputing his veracity, or the accuracy of his recollection. It had been supposed the hostile Indians fought from behind trees, but Frazier says they occupied the natural gullies or fissures of the hill, while the American troops were exposed, and they were thus enabled to continue the battle with almost perfect tranquility. Boston Journal. - Idleness. An idle person is like one that is dead, unconcerned in the chan ges and necessities of the world, and he only lives to spend his time and eat the fruits of the earth. Like a vermin or a wolf, when their time comes, they die and perish, and in the mean time do no good: they neither plough nor carry burthens: all that they do is either tin profitable or mischievous. Idleness is the greatest prodigality in the world; it throws away that which is invaluable in respect of Us present use and irre parable when it is past, being to be re covered by no power of art or nature.

WHERE'ER IT LEADS THE WAY."

surroitT YOUR MECHANICS. There is scarcely any thing which tends more to the improvement of a town than a fair and liberal support afforded to mechanics of every discription. Population is necessary to the prosperity of any country; and that populat ion being of an honest and industrious character, renders prosperity more certain, uniform and unvarying. Scarcely any place has yet risen to much importance, even when possessed of the most commercial advantages, without a true regard to ihe encouragement of the mechanic arts. For, though !he exportation of produce and t he importation of merchandise, forms the leading features of such a place, the various arts of mechanics are invariably called into requisition, and are indispcnsible to render the progress of commercial operations safe. To an inland town mechanics are equally important as elsewhere. They constitute a large and respectable portion of society in all countries, but in towns and villages they are almost a leading constituent part of their growth and population. To afford ample support to a class of citizens so highly useful and necessary, is certainly the duty of those engaged in other pursuits. Some branches of mechanism have to sustain no competition from abroad, the nature of their business preventing such inroads or interferences; others are however, subject to be innovated by the importation of similar articles of foreign produce made for sale, and, often by their apparently low rates induce a preference over our own productions. Although trade and commerce in all their various branches, should be free and unshackled, a regard for the growth and prosperity of our village should induce us to afford a reasonable support to our mechanics; we should at least give them a preference when we arc no losers by it. A little experience will have convinced many that it is in most case?, their interest to do so, independent of any other considerations. Indiana Register. EVERY" ?IAN A FARMER. The cultivation of the earth is con genial to the nature of mankind; and a very large proportion of men, during some share of their lives, either do, or lave a desire to become farmers, be sides those who, in civilized countries, are bred to the culture of the soil, and make it their sole pursuit through life, there arc thousands of others who retire from the bustle and anxieties of trade, the vexations of a professional, or the turmoils of a public life, to a rural qui et, and the undisturbed cultivation of a few acres of land. The merchant, whose youth has been spent behind the counter, and whose prime of life and middle age have passed between the legcr and the strong box, between the hopes of gain and the fear of loss, having at length realized a plum, retires from the crowded city and the anxieties of trade, to the pure air of the country, and the peaceful cultivation of the farm. Ihe lawyer, having acquired wealth and fame, abandons his causes, for a more tempting cause, the pursuit of agriculture; or mingles with his pro fessional labors the exercise of the spade md plough. In like manner, the phy sician and the divine, the curcrs of physicial and moral diseases, consult their own health and quiet, and find a balm for body and mind, by snatching a few hours from the calls of professional dutj-, to apply them to the grateful pur suits of tilling the earth. Why should we mention the statesman and the warrior? They loo are inclined to become farmers: the one leaving the field of ambition, and the other his harvest of laurels, both seek a soil more congenial to the best feelings of man, and end the career of life, like Cincinnati, at the plough. Even the mariner, the adven turous son of JNeptune, whose home has been for many cars professionally and practicall-, on the deep who has sailed to all lands, and visited every sea, bringing with him the rarities of every country and the products of eve ry clime purchases a home on the land, transplants his exotics into his na tive soil, and prefers, that his last rest should be in the rural church yard with his kindred, to finding a bed in the bo som of the deep. The mechanic too is smit with the love of farming, and ex changes the dust of the shop for the furrows of the field, the crowded air of crowded rooms for the free atmosphere of the heavens, and the noise of machi nery for the music of birds. Nor is this prevailing love of agricul

YOLOIE 1. AO.

tu re, which sooner or later in life discovers itself, to be wondered at, whether we consider it as implanted in our nature, or whether it be the result of reason and experience. If it be innate, it is merely kept down for a while by the engrossing pursuits of wealth, the calls of ambition, or the strife of glory. But these being at length satiated or disappointed, the mind set free, returns to its native desires, and applies its remaining ener gies to their peaceful gratifications. But reason and experience may wrll be allowed their share of bringing so large a portion of mankind ultimately to the cultivation of the earth. Who, that values his native dignity and inde pendence, would not prefer to be lord of a few acres of land, with nobody's humors to consult but hi own, and no body to please but his Maker, to the cringing, the fawning, and the lying, that are apt to enter so largely into po litical, protessional, mercantile, and me chanic life? If any man on earth can emphatically say " nnfc no favors,"1 it is the farmer. Skillful and honest labor is all that the earth requires, and it yields a due return no favors dearly bought with the surrender of indepen dence, of honor, of truth, and of all no ble and manly feelings; no truckling for office, no fawning for popularity, no lying for gain. No man can say of farming, I have served a faithless master; I have sacrificed honor, and conscience, md independence of mind, and what have I gained? Among farmers there ire no deserted Woolseys, and no Belisaiius lives a reproach to agricultural piMsnits. The choristers of the field never sung to deceive, the flowers of the mead never bloom to hide a deformity, and nature never smiles to betray. COATENTJIISXT. Nappy, superlatively happy thai man, and that man only who can say with the great apostle, "I have learned in whatever state 1 am, therewith to be content." And the mind which is thus composed and at peace within himself, satisfied with that portion of enjoyments, which a wise and good Providence ap points, is no longer at the mercy of all changes of this sublunary world ; he has nobly emancipated himself from the general servitude to blind and capri cious lorlune. Jbqually "without a wish so mean as to be great, as unseared by the spectre of pale poverty,' he is cool and tranquil enough to relish all the humble blessings of his own state of life. His bosom is at rest; not like the troubled sea, violent in its motions, and foul in its appearance; but like the gentle rivulet all clear and serene, and exhibiting as in a mirror, every beauty of the landscape around him, together with the splendor and magnificence of the heavens above. Cosais Sermons. THE INDIANS. Mr. Schoolcraft,in his interesting narative of his expedition to Itasca Lake, condemns the opinion that the Indians are universally cruel and morose. He found them in a few instances, "frank, cheerful, and confiding," and witnessed proceedings"and manners on the part of numbers, which argued strong social sympathy. In 1 832, Congress passed an act with this provision "no ardent spirits shall be hereafter introduced, under any pretence, into the Indian country." "The enforcement of this act," says Mr. Schoolcraft, "has been rigidly enjoined, and it is in the process of successful execution." At Leech Lake an Indian chief made uite an able speech to the Expedition, his tribe being present. "Much of the sentiment of his address appeared to be uttered for popular clfect. There was a marked difference between the tone of his private conversation, and the tenor of his public address. When he transacted business or harangued, he appeared in his native costume; but when he came to bid farewell to the Expedition, he was dressed in a blue military frock coat, white underclothes, a linen ru filed shirt, shoes and stockings, neat round hat, &cv If he had uttered his speech in the foreign costume, it might have been associated in the minds of his people, with the idea of servility; but he was willing afterwards to let us observe by assuming it, that he knew we would consider it as a mark of respect. A young man named Abraham L. Olmstead, while bathing at Whitehall, New York, a few days ago, in diving, struck his head against the bottom of the lake with so much force as to hrewk his neck.