d.

[283] In August five Indians on their way to the settlements on the
waters of the Monongahela, met with two men on Middle Island creek,
and killed them. Taking their horses they continued on their route
until they came to the house of William Johnson on Ten Mile, and made
prisoner of Mrs. Johnson and some children; plundered the house,
killed part of the stock, and taking with them one of Johnson's
horses, returned towards the Ohio. When the Indians came to the house,
Johnson had gone to a lick not far off, and on his return in the
morning, seeing what had been done, and searching until he found the
trail of the savages and their prisoners, ran to Clarksburg for
assistance. A company of men repaired with him immediately to where
he had discovered the trail, and keeping it about a mile, found four
of the children lying dead in the woods. The savages had tomahawked
and scalped them, and placing their heads close together, turned their
bodies and feet straight out so as to represent a cross. The dead were
buried and farther pursuit given over.

Other Indians, about the same time, came to the house of John Mack on
a branch of Hacker's creek. He being from home, they killed all who
were at the house. Two of the children, who had been sent into the
woods to hunt the cattle, returning, saw a little sister lying in the
yard scalped, and directly fled, and gave the alarm. In the morning
some men assembled and went to ascertain the extent of the mischief.
The house was no longer to be seen,--a heap of ashes was all that
remained of it. The little girl who had been scalped in the yard, was
much burned, and those who had been murdered in the house, were
consumed with it. Mrs. Mack had been taken some distance from the
house, tomahawked, scalped, and stripped naked. She was yet alive; and
as the men approached, a sense of her situation induced her to exert
her feeble strength in drawing leaves around her so as to conceal her
nakedness. The men wrapped their hunting shirts about her, and carried
her to a neighboring house. She lived a few days, gave birth to a
child and died.

Some time after the murder of Mack's family, John Sims, living on a
branch of Gnatty creek, seeing his horses come running up much
affrighted, was led to believe that the Indians had been trying to
catch them. In a few minutes, the dogs began to bark furiously in the
corn field adjoining, and he became satisfied the savages were
approaching. Knowing [28