e:
The name is variously spelt; in the original German records of the
family it appears as Waetzel, or Watzel.] Boon, Kenton, and Harrod
illustrate by their lives the nobler, kindlier traits of the dauntless
border-folk; Wetzel, like McGarry, shows the dark side of the picture.
He was a good friend to his white neighbors, or at least to such of them
as he liked, and as a hunter and fighter there was not in all the land
his superior. But he was of brutal and violent temper, and for the
Indians he knew no pity and felt no generosity. They had killed many of
his friends and relations, among others his father; and he hunted them
in peace or war like wolves. His admirers denied that he ever showed
"unwonted cruelty" [Footnote: De Haas, 345.] to Indian women and
children; that he sometimes killed them cannot be gainsaid. Some of his
feats were cold-blooded murders, as when he killed an Indian who came in
to treat with General Harmar, under pledge of safe conduct; one of his
brothers slew in like fashion a chief who came to see Col. Brodhead. But
the frontiersmen loved him, for his mere presence was a protection, so
great was the terror he inspired among the red men. His hardihood and
address were only equalled by his daring and courage. He was literally a
man without fear; in his few days of peace his chief amusements were
wrestling, foot-racing, and shooting at a mark. He was a dandy, too,
after the fashion of the backwoods, especially proud of his mane of long
hair, which, when he let it down, hung to his knees. He often hunted
alone in the Indian country, a hundred miles beyond the Ohio. As he
dared not light a bright fire on these trips, he would, on cold nights,
make a small coal-pit, and cower over it, drawing his blanket over his
head, when, to use his own words, he soon became as hot as in a "stove
room." Once he surprised four Indians sleeping in their camp; falling on
them he killed three. Another time, when pursued by the same number of
foes, he loaded his rifle as he ran, and killed in succession the three
foremost, whereat the other fled. In all, he took over thirty scalps of
warriors, thus killing more Indians than were slain by either one of the
two large armies of Braddock and St. Clair during their disastrous
campaigns. Wetzel's frame, like his heart, was of steel. But his temper
was too sullen and unruly for him ever to submit to command or to bear
rule over others. His feats were performed when he was either