FRANCES SLOCUM THE CAPTIVE
(continued)

On our way we tarried a few moments with an Indian chief, and found him quite friendly, but broken and destroyed by a habit unknown to the Indian when the white man had no communication with him - drunkenness.
     Passing by a number of Indian settlements, dotting the banks of the Wabash with their low, dingy wigwams, we came to the encampment where my sister lives.  We tied our horses to the trees, and immediately proceeded to her separate wigwam; and a scene occurred of such exciting nature that I found it impossible to restrain the outbursting of my feelings.  I recognized her as my sister and received her children as my nieces.  One of them has brown hair of fine texture; upon distributing your presents, she seemed pleased and greeted me with increased joy.  The marks by which I supposed I would be able to recognize here were particularly evident; her bruised finger was strongly corroborative evidence and there remained no doubt in my mind of the exact identity.  After sojourning a short time with them, and seeing all that could be seen, we returned, accompanied by the entire family, to Peru, and there ensued another scene that baffles description.
     My sister, Mrs. Mary Twone, did not go with us, but had remained in the village, being old and enfeebled by the long course of years which had glided over her head.  We were all together in a separate room.  Two sisters and two brothers, but just dawning on one who had lived a life of a nomad of the forest, and whom it was supposed had long since been buried (a green mound erected over her bones) but now suddenly restored to life, resuscitated as it were, and the first knowledge of her condition opening to her view; the appreciation, the tender recollection of former years but above all, the strong ties of nature and the thought of sixty years bondage - her very eventful life - the sad tale of sufferings, and her knowledge of the Indian character all seem rushing through our minds.  Our joy was silent the steady, calm flow of feeling, but inexpressible.  We separated, and the next morning they returned to their village.
     On Sunday the two daughters came down but were not at church; it being a day of which they were utterly ignorant, and consequently they pay but little attention to its solemnities.
     Capt. Brouillette an Indian half-breed, is a respectable member of the Miami tribe.  His features are strong but finely formed, and he possesses an excellent exterior.  He is quite rich and draws about him the importance of wealth.
     I cannot state how long we shall remain; we are getting the interesting incidents of the Captive's history, and have tried every means in our power to induce her to return with us, to see at least the spot from which she was taken but such are her manners, her habits and customs, that I fear everything will prove ineffectual.  She is perfectly conscious of her condition and feels the peculiarity of her history threefold. .     .     .     .     .
                                                                                                   Your obedient servant,
                                                                                                       JOSEPH SLOCUM.

     Another leter from the viziting party waz publisht in The Wyoming Republican, viz:

PERU, INDIANA, September 27, 1837.

     We arrived here on the 21st inst.  The town is new and flourishing; situated on the north side of the Wabash a little below the mouth of the Mississinewa which empties in from the south.  The last twenty-five miles of our journey were through the Miami Reserve, without any white inhabitants.  We found Isaac Slocum here awaiting our arrival.  He had visited the woman in the Reserve, mentioned in the letter of Mr. Ewing, and is perfectly satisfied that she is the sister taken captive in 1778.  The next day we repaired to the village with Mr. Miller the interpreter, together with Mr. Hunt, a half-breed who was educated at Col. Johnson's school in the State of Kentucky, and another gentleman [James B. Fulwiler].  Fording the Wabash at this place we passed up the river to the Mississinewa, and in about five miles came to an Indian town surrounded with blue grass pasturage and cornfields intermixed without order.  Some of the natives were about their houses; others were at tents pitched in cornfields where they were gathering corn, their ponies standing saddled near the tents.  Whenever they have any work to do at even so short a distance from their houses, they pitch a tent, cook and live there until the work is done, a few only returning to their houses at night.  We soon after came to the seat of Godfroy, the second war chief of the Miamis, consisting of five or six two story houses within an enclosure of perhaps half an acre which we entered through a gate wide enough for a carriage to pass.  Upon entering the house we were all introduced to the Chief by Mr. Miller who told him our business in the nation.  HE received us very courteously and proferred us all the assistance in his power.  He is probably over fifty years of age, of portly and majestic appearance, being more than six feet high, well proportioned and weighing about 320 pounds.  He was dressed in leggins and a blue calico shirt that came down to the knee, profusely ornamented with ruffles of the same, his hair nearly half gray and tied in a queue hanging elegantly down his back.  After taking leave of the Chief, we proceeded to Deaf Man's Village, the residence of the captive woman, a distance of about four miles further up the Mississinewa, where the natives were employed in the same way as before described.  At one of these fields we found the husband of the youngest daughter of the captive woman.  He mounted his pony and went with us to the village where we were introduced to the captive, her two daughters, and Captain Brouillette, the husband of the elder.  The girls are aged thirty-three and twenty-three.  The younger has three small children, but not by this husband.  The elder had two, but both are dead.  Capt. Brouillette is a half-breed Indian, of elegant appearance, very straight and slim, and about six feet high.  Uncle Joseph at once recognized his sister, and after conversing with them some time in the course of which we endeavored by all means in our power to gain their confidence, it was proposed to them to accompany us upon our return to Peru.  Mr. Miller had to give the old lady very strong assurances that we had no intention to take her away contrary to her inclination, before she would go; and at length she consented, and accompanied by her two daughters and their husbands, she returned with us to the town where they joined us at the supper table and appeared to be perfectly at ease.  They had now become satisfied that we were their relatives and their confidence was so much strengthened that she felt justified in proffering us their friendship.  This was done by one of them placing on the stand something wrapped in a white cloth, after which they spoke with the interpreter in a solemn manner, when he rose and said that they were our friends, and by way of acknowledging themselves as such they presented us with a piece of fresh venison which they wished us to receive as a token of friendship.  We then rose and thanked them and received the token.  Mrs. Towne taking up the ham of venison and removing the cloth, which made them satisfied.  The next morning they all came to breakfast with us, and the captive gave us, in the course of the day, all the history of her life that she could recollect.  Mr. Miller, to whom we are greatly indebted, and Mr. Hunt, acted as interpreters.  I wrote down the narration in the words of the interpreter.  There are not many striking incidents in her life, but she and her family in their native costume, their extreme simplicity of manner, the natural modesty and solemnity of their deportment, formed the most interesting group ever beheld.  They are decidedly the most respectable family in the [Miami] nation, and they are also very wealthy, having upward of a hundred horses and many cattle and hogs.  Capt. Brouillette is the only Indian who cultivates corn with the plow.  He has a yoke of oxen, and wagon, and frequently takes beef and other articles to market.
     Mr. Miller, who has often passed the night with them, says they live well.  They dress quite richly, and the old lady told me she had always had plenty and lived happily with the Indians.  Her husband and two of his children were buried where she now lives, and she never can think of leaving her present abode.  I cannot help thinking she is right, for the family appears of be one of the most happy I ever saw.  The two daughters have returned to see us several times.  They are sensible and wish to be very sociable, but labor under the great difficulty in not understanding our language.  The older one presented Isaac Slocum with a pair of moccasins for his wife, as he is to leave soon.  The confidence they reposed in us seems to be complete and the more I see of these children of the wilderness the more I respect their character.  They have a natural politeness and good feeling that cannot be surpassed in the most polished circles; but this is not shown until they have every confidence in those around them; before that, in the presence of strangers, they are timorous and distant.  They have just taken leave of us for home; it is four o'clock P. M., but they never hurry themselves.  They frequently ride home, nine miles, most of the way through the woods, with as much sang froid as they would in the day time.

.     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .     .

     Franses' brother Joseph, with hiz dauters Hartna and Harriet, vizited her in September, 1839; and it iz from the diariz kept by ther nesez that many ov the womanly feturz ov the Kaptiv's experiensez, and kondishons, hav bin preservd. Soon after her kaptur she waz adopted with name We-let-a-wash by a Delaware chief, kald Tuck Hors, and hiz wife, to take the plas ov their dauter ho had then resently died. Tha jeneraly treted her wel.

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Here wer organized and ekwipt many savaj maurauding partiz, not only agenst the Amerikan setlments in Ohio, Kentucky, and western Virginia, but agenst eery Amerikan frontier, and even into estern Pennsylvania - many ov thoz prezent at the Wyoming Masaker wer ekwipt at this plas.  During the sumerz the ajd, and wimen and children, moved along the water, prinsipaly ov western Lake Erie and the Maume River; living on wild fruts, fish and other game.  For several yerz after the kloz of the Revolushonary War, the time ov the wariors waz givn mor to hunting and traping ov peltriz; and the atenshon ov the wimen waz givn mor to the kultivashon ov maz (korn) and a fu vejetabls, al ov them yet under the jeneral supervizhon ov the British, ho kontinud to hold Detroit in violashon ov the Trety ov Ghent.
     The savajez, however, kud not long remain in kwiet life after the cloz of the Revolushonary war.  The blud ov maurauding and waring ansestorz for unnumberd jenerashons korst warm in their ans, laterly having been, for several jenerashons habitualy exsited by vans, laterlly having been, for several jenerashons habitualy exsited by the Frenchmen's brandy and later, by the British rum.  Maraudings on pioner Amerikan setlments agen inkrest to such degre that, the eforts for trety failing, soljerz wer sent agenst them.  With aid ov the British, under hoz kontrol tha kontinuud, tha defeted two Amerikan Armiz (ov Generals Hamar and St. Clair) and wer exultant in preparashons to driv al Amerikans bak est ov the Alegeny Mountans, or exterminat them.  It was then that General Anthony Wayne marcht thru the forest bilt Fort Defeans by the riverz Maume and Anglaiz, and swept down the Maume like a 'whirlwind' to their krushing defeat at Fallen Timer 20 August, 1794, and to the destrukshon ov their krops.  Late the same yer he bilt Fort Wayne at Kekionga the hed ov the Maume.  During al thez yerz ov turmoil and bludshed Franses Slocum, the Kaptiv, ranjd betwen Detroit and the hed ov the Maumee River at Kekionga, now Fort Wayne, first with the main band ov Delaware Aborijinez, and later with the Miamis into which tribe she waz adopted.

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     She waz marid to a Delaware * ho soon therafter forsook her or waz kild.  She, with many Delawars, waz much in asociashon with the Miamis along the Maume River; and she marid sekond, a Miami Chief, She-po-kon-ah by name.  In later yerz he bekame kwit def.  After this marij her nam waz chanjd to the Miami, Ma-kon-a-quah,  Kekionga (which nam waz chanjd to Fort Wayne in November, 1794) at the hed ov the Maume River, waz their hedkwarterz for many yerz in winterz, partikularly.
     Long befor the deklarashon ov the War ov 1812, the Aborijine wariorz wer kept armd and eqwipt by the British and, thru their ally Tekumsch, tha were insited and trand for that war.  About the time ov their unsuksesful sej ov Fort Wayne in 1812, the wimen and children wer for a time at Brownstown, Michigan; then along the Maume and by the Eel River west ov Fort Wayne; and later in this War tha went to the Mississinewa River.  Praktikaly al ov the aktiv wariorz wer with the Bitish, with hedkwarterz at Amherstburg, Canada, during this War.
     Mor than fifty tretiz ar rekorded etween the United States and the Miami Aborijinez.  The trety ov most importans to this Kaptiv and her descendants† iz 'A Treaty held at the Forks of the Wabash' (entrans ov Litl River into the WAbash a mile and a half belo the prezent City ov Huntington, Indiana) 6 November, 1838, in which the Miami tribe seded and relinkwisht to the United States their former Rezervashonz in konsiderashon ov a nu Reservashon 'West ov the Mississippi River' a payment to and for them ov $335,680.00, and numerus smaler Rezervashons within their former Indiana Rezervashons to favord individualz, and familiz ho choz  to reman on them.  Wun Sekshon (wun skwar mile, 640 akerz) ov land waz givn to Franses Slocum's two dauterz for their, and her, tenansi in komon (se Family 242A) thus insuring her and her children a per-