hat the firing had been heard a very long way;
and a band of mounted riflemen had gathered in hot haste to go to the
relief of the beleaguered stockade.

The Indians, whooping defiance, retired; while McGarry halted a moment
to allow the rescued settlers to bridle their horses--saddles were not
thought of. The pursuit was then begun at full speed. At the ford of a
small creek near by, the rearmost Indians turned and fired at the
horsemen, killing one and wounding another, while a third had his horse
mired down, and was left behind. The main body was overtaken at the
corn-crib, and a running fight followed; the whites leaving their horses
and both sides taking shelter behind the tree-trunks. Soon two Indians
were killed, and the others scattered in every direction, while the
victors returned in triumph to the station.

Slight Losses of the Indians.

It is worthy of notice that though the Indians were defeated, and though
they were pitted against first-class rifle shots, they yet had but five
men killed and a very few wounded. They rarely suffered a heavy loss in
battle with the whites, even when beaten in the open or repulsed from a
fort. They would not stand heavy punishment, and in attacking a fort
generally relied upon a single headlong rush, made under cover of
darkness or as a surprise; they tried to unnerve their antagonists by
the sudden fury of their onslaught and the deafening accompaniment of
whoops and yells. If they began to suffer much loss they gave up at
once, and if pursued scattered in every direction, each man for himself,
and owing to their endurance, woodcraft, and skill in hiding, usually
got off with marvellously little damage. At the outside a dozen of their
men might be killed in the pursuit by such of the vengeful backwoodsmen
as were exceptionally fleet of foot. The northwestern tribes at this
time appreciated thoroughly that their marvellous fighting qualities
were shown to best advantage in the woods, and neither in the defence
nor in the assault of fortified places. They never cooped themselves in
stockades to receive an attack from the whites, as was done by the
Massachusetts Algonquins in the seventeenth century, and by the Creeks
at the beginning of the nineteenth; and it was only when behind
defensive works from which they could not retreat that the forest
Indians ever suffered heavily when defeated by the whites. On the other
hand, the defeat of the average white force was usually