peculiar heroes of the frontier, and their
names were household words in the log cabins of the children, and
children's children, of their contemporaries. They were warriors of the
type of the rude champions who in the ages long past hunted the mammoth
and the aurochs, and smote one another with stone-headed axes; their
feats of ferocious personal prowess were of the kind that gave honor and
glory to the mighty men of time primeval. Their deeds were not put into
books while the men themselves lived; they were handed down by
tradition, and grew dim and vague in the recital. What one fierce
partisan leader had done might dwindle or might grow in the telling or
might finally be ascribed to some other; or else the same feat was
twisted into such varying shapes that it became impossible to recognize
which was nearest the truth, or what man had performed it.

The Border Leaders.

Often in dealing with the adventures of one of these old-time border
warriors--Kenton, Wetzel, Brady, Mansker, Castleman,--all we can say is
that some given feat was commonly attributed to him, but may have been
performed by somebody else, or indeed may only have been the kind of
feat which might at any time have been performed by men of his stamp.
Thus one set of traditions ascribe to Brady an adventure in which when
bound to a stake, he escaped by suddenly throwing an Indian child into
the fire, and dashing off unhurt in the confusion; but other traditions
ascribe the feat not to Brady, but to some other wild hunter of the day.
Again one of the favorite tales of Brady is his escape from a band of
pursuing Indians, by an extraordinary leap across a deep ravine, at the
bottom of which flowed a rapid stream; but in some traditions this leap
appears as made by another frontier hero, or even by an Indian whom
Brady himself was pursuing. It is therefore a satisfaction to come
across, now and then, some feat which is attested by contemporaneous
testimony. There is such contemporary record for one of Brady's deeds,
which took place towards the close of the Revolutionary war.

Brady's Feats.

Brady had been on a raid in the Indian country and was returning. His
party had used all their powder and had scattered, each man going
towards his own home, as they had nearly reached the settlements. Only
three men were left with Brady, the four had but one charge of powder
apiece, and even this had been wet in crossing a stream, though it had
been caref