 | A Leap for Life. Wild scenes on the frontiers, or, Heroes of the West |  |
6. A Leap for Life.
During the early settlements in the western part of Pennsylvania
and the northwestern portion of Virginia, the
hardy adventurers into those then wilderness solitudes at
times suffered severely from the incursions of the Indians.
As early as 1780, quite a large body of warriors, from the
vicinity of the cuyahoga Falls, came suddenly down upon
the unprotected frontier, and, before any check could be
put to their ravages, succeeded in murdering and plunder-ing
quite a number of the whites, and effecting their retreat
in safety.
At this time there was a well-known Indian hunter in
that vicinity, one Captain Samuel Brady, whose many
daring exploits and hair-breadth escapes had rendered
him as famous throughout that region as his cotemporary,
the celebrated Daniel Boone, was in Kentucky; and having
under his leadership a goodly number of as brave and
daring spirits as himself, he at once called them together,
selected a certain number for the expedition, and set out
on the trail of the savages, hoping to overtake them and
villages.
In this respect, however, the captain and his friends were
disappointed; for the Indians had gained a start which
enabled them to reach their towns in advance of their
pursuers; but as they belonged to different tribes, it was
discovered that they had separated on the bank of the
Cuyahoga—one part crossing it and going to the northward,
and the other turning off to the westward, as it
was supposed to the Falls, where it was known there was a
village.
This division of the Indians rendered it necessary for the
whites, if they would follow each trail, to divide their
force also, which would weaken it materially, and render
their further pursuit still more hazardous; and in view of
this new danger, Captain Brady stated the whole matter
fairly to his companions, and inquired of them what they
were disposed to do under the circumstances.
Should they follow either one of the trails, he said, the
other half of the Indians would escape; should they follow
neither one, all would escape; and should they divide,
each division would be comparatively small, and they might
all be cut off in detail; therefore it was for them to choose
whether they would go forward in one party or two, or
return as they were without striking a blow.
The men were not long in deciding; they were unanimous
upon the enemy; they also preferred a division of the
party; and accordingly about one-half of them immediately
crossed the river and set off to the northward, while the
remainder, under Captain Brady, followed the westward
trail to the Cuyahoga Falls.
It was the design and expectation of the gallant captain
to take the Indians by surprise; but the latter, expecting
to be pursued by the whites, were prepared to receive
them; and it was only by a mere accident that the borderers
were saved from falling into an ambuscade which
would have proved fatal to all.
Seeing that the Indians were fully prepared for them—
that there was no chance of taking them by surprise—that
their numbers were at least four times as many as their
own—our friends judiciously determined upon a retreat;
but they had not gone far, when the Indians, uttering their
wildest war-whoops, set after them in a body.
Knowing that if his men continued together, there would
be no hope for any of them, Captain Brady, in order to
save as many lives as possible, called out to them to disperse
in every direction, and each man to look out for himself.
By this means he expected to divide the Indians into
small parties in their pursuit of single individuals; and
this might have been the result, had they not, unfortunately
for his own safety, discovered in him their most
his capture.
Captain Brady was well known to the Indians; in
former times he had hunted with them over these very
grounds; but he had subsequently become their most implacable
enemy, and had done them so much injury as to
create in them a fiendish desire to take him alive and put
him to the tortures—they well knowing that the accomplishment
of this purpose would not only rid them of the
man they both hated and feared, but would deprive the
whites of their bravest and most during leader, and would
thus strike a more effective blow against the latter than
would the destruction of a dozen or twenty men of lesser
note. For this reason, therefore, the moment it was
ascertained that he was one of the party, his capture was
determined on by all; and turning from the pursuit of the
others, the whole yelling crew set after him.
Captain Brady had something of the start, and was one
of the fleetest runners on the border; that he could
distance and escape from a few, he was sanguine enough
to believe; but when he found himself recognized, and,
looking behind him, saw the whole body in chase of
himself, his very heart seemed to die within him. What
chance had he of escape indeed—single-handed and alone
—afar from the refuge of even a wilderness fort—and with
fifty infuriated Indians in hot pursuit, urged on by a spirit
upon taking him alive or dead?
But the captain was a brave man, and a brave man dies
but once; he was a sanguine man, too, and would not
consider his case hopeless while the freedom of his limbs
remained; and though, as he afterward expressed it, “it
was hardly one chance in fifty, yet he was determined to
do his best, and have no fault to find with himself from a
lack of effort.”
Near the point where the race first started, the Cuyahoga
makes a bend to the south, so as to nearly enclose an
area of several square miles in the form of a peninsula;
the direction taken by Brady soon brought him within this
enclosure; and the Indians, by extending their line to the
two banks of the stream, at the point where they most
nearly approach each other, considered him as in a net,
and announced their satisfaction by yells of triumph.
There was now, in fact, no chance for him to escape
except through their lines or across the Cuyahoga river;
and considering that the foremost pursuers were not fifty
yards behind him, either of these chances was regarded
by the savages as an impossibility.
Still the hardy and gallant captain did not despair; he
had many a time hunted over this very ground, and knew
every inch of it, and all the windings, turnings, and
peculiarities of the river as well as the Indians themselves;
compressed within a few feet, rushed roaring and foaming
through a rocky gorge; and it at once occurred to him to
shape his course for this point, and make a bold, desperate
leap for the other shore. He might fall short, and be
dashed to pieces upon the rocks beneath, it was true; but
this would only be a quick and sudden death; the awful
tortures of the stake awaited him if taken alive; and to
take him alive was unquestionably the design of his pursuers,
since they had neglected to fire upon him from a
distance which would have made their aim fatal.
Casting away his rifle, as only an incumbrance which
could not serve him in this strait, he bounded forward with
renewed energy; and with a bare hope of life before him,
he fled with a speed that few could equal—slightly gaining
upon the fleetest of his foes—but not sufficiently, during
the whole race, to take him beyond the easy reach of a rifle
ball.
Nearer and nearer he came to the rushing and foaming
stream; and as he heard the roar of the waters, and saw
but a few seconds could intervene between the present and
the awful leap which might save or destroy him, his heart
beat wildly, and his whole frame seemed to tremble with
the intense concentration of his mind upon the fearful
venture.
Nearer and nearer he came; louder grew the roar of
him, and the white spray of the fearful torrent rising to his
view; the Indians yelling behind, and his only hope here;
and then, contracting his muscles, as his feet lightly
pressed the precipitous rock, and throwing into them all
the power of his concentrated will, he leaped into the air,
like a bounding ball, and landed safely upon the other
rocky verge of the abyss, striking a little below the height
from which he sprung, but passing a clear distance of
twenty-two feet between the mural shores.
Instantly grasping some bushes which fringed the verge
of the awful chasm, to prevent himself from falling backward
into the seething stream, the gallant captain stood
for a few moments, panting from his exertions, and striving
to recover his breath for still another flight.
In those few moments the Indians appeared upon the
opposite bluff, expecting to find that he had been dashed
to pieces upon the rocks below; but on discovering him
safely on the opposite side, their astonishment was so great
as involuntarily and simultaneously to draw from them
some two or three short, approving whoops—forgetting in
their first surprise that he was clearly beyond their reach,
and not seeming to recollect it till he had begun to vigorously
climb the ridge above him in his further efforts at
escape. Then drawing up their rifles, with a quick aim,
they poured in upon him something like a regular volley—
them lodging in his hip and inflicting a severe and painful
wound.
Notwithstanding this, the gallant fellow continued his
ascent, and, on reaching the top of the ridge, gave a yell of
defiance, and disappeared on the other side.
Captain Brady was now aware that the Indians would
have to make a considerable circuit in order to reach him;
and had he not been so severely wounded, he would have
considered his escape as almost certain; but knowing he
would still be followed, and finding his wound very painful,
and the cords of his leg fast stiffening, he cast about him
for some place to secrete himself from their search.
After running a short distance, he discovered a pond,
and, near the shore, a large oak which had fallen into it;
there might be nothing better than this; and hurrying
forward with all his might, he boldly plunged in, swam
under water to the tree, and came up beneath the trunk
and among the branches, in such a manner as to be barely
able to breathe without exposing any portion of his person
to his enemies.
Here, in a state of mind which may be imagined but
cannot be described, the gallant borderer remained for a
long time, watching his enemies as they collected one by
one along the shore at the point where his bloody trail had
disappeared in the water.
Still resolved upon finding him, either living or dead,
the savages were by no means disposed to give up the
search; and after running along the shore for a considerable
distance, on either side of his trail, to ascertain if
possible where he had emerged from the water, several of
the party plunged in, swam out to the oak, and actually
seated themselves upon it, while they conversed in their
own language, which he understood, concerning his wonderful
escape.
At last, with such feelings of joy as no one not similarly
circumstanced might comprehend, he heard them
state their belief that he was drowned, and his body lost
to them by being sunk in deep water; and soon after this,
to his still greater joy, they quietly returned to the shore,
and one by one all gradually disappeared.
Remaining in his uncomfortable position till he considered
it safe to leave it, the wounded captain himself
then swam back to the land; and weary, lame, and hungry
as he was—alone, and without a weapon for his defence—
he set off on his long, tedious journey through the wilderness
for his own home; which he eventually reached more
dead than alive; and where, to his great gratification, he
found the companions of his perilous expedition already
returned in safety.
This has truly been considered one of the most wonderful
adventures of a region teeming with adventure; and to
bears his name; while the rocky chasm of the Cuyahoga,
across which he made his desperate spring, is known far
and near by the name of “Brady's Leap.”
| A Leap for Life. Wild scenes on the frontiers, or, Heroes of the West | |