dred loop-holes. In this building,
or, rather, near the door of it, lay a man dead, dreadfully mutilated.
We pushed in, and the few soldiers that occupied the house ran out into
the wood, which was close to this building, and thus escaped, with the
exception of about five or six, who were shot by some good marksmen.
This house was also empty, save that some little grain was scattered
about here and there. They did not, I should suppose, expect us to dinner,
although their cooking utensils, well filled, were boiling on the fire.
These we broke for fear of poison, a crime they were fully capable of.
On looking at the poor mutilated man, he was discovered to be one of our
spies, respecting whom our kind-hearted quarter-master-general had
expressed the most anxious solicitude. My expressions, in describing
these savages, may have been thought to have been too severe and
exaggerated, when I accused them of being barbarous and cruel; but the
reader shall now judge for himself whether or not this accusation was
unfounded.

In all nations, even in Europe, the practice of punishing spies is
recognized as just; but their execution is generally public, and not
without the sanction and approbation of the governor or
commander-in-chief; and no piquet, post, or guard, dare inflict the
penalty of death. This poor creature was seized, and literally cut to
pieces; and it was supposed, by the medical people, that he must have
died a death of extreme agony, for the ground under him was dug up with
his struggling under the torture which had been inflicted on him. His
arms had been cut off, about half way up from the elbow to the
shoulder; after which it appeared that two deep incisions had been cut
in his body, just above the hips, into which the two arms had been
thrust. His features were distorted in a most frightful manner. Our poor
fellows wept bitterly over the sight, and swore, in the bitterness of
their anger, that they would revenge this foul and bloody deed; and I
had great difficulty, with their gallant captain, in restraining them
from following those savages into the wood. The pioneers having arrived,
the poor wretch was committed to his last home, amidst the sympathy of
all around.

Ettoondah was the name of the place where this barbarous murder had been
committed; and a more lovely or more picturesque spot there is not in
the created world.

Here we had some tolerably good fishing, by tying our horse-blankets
together, an