. The back-woodsmen; or, Tales of the borders; a collection of historical and authentic accounts of early adventure among the Indians. ll directions, search-ing for traces of the wanderers. Smith, with twotrusty comrades, at once sought the river, and, ex-amining the soft mud and sand on the bank for foot-prints, soon discovered the impressions of small shoes,made, evidently, by the feet of women. Followingthe tracks, he came to the place where the canoehad been launched, and, as the marks of the boatremained distinctly impressed on the sand, he wasnot slow in concluding that he should have to
. The back-woodsmen; or, Tales of the borders; a collection of historical and authentic accounts of early adventure among the Indians. ll directions, search-ing for traces of the wanderers. Smith, with twotrusty comrades, at once sought the river, and, ex-amining the soft mud and sand on the bank for foot-prints, soon discovered the impressions of small shoes,made, evidently, by the feet of women. Followingthe tracks, he came to the place where the canoehad been launched, and, as the marks of the boatremained distinctly impressed on the sand, he wasnot slow in concluding that he should have to searchfor further traces of the girls on the opposite immediately plunged into the stream, and, fol-lowed by his two companions, swam across. A shortdistance below he again found the foot-prints of thethree fair adventurers, with the deep impressionsmade by the four moccasined savages; and, at onceconjecturing that the girls had been led into captivity,he pressed forward with an ardor which soon placedhim well on his way. As Smith was familiar with every part of the sur-rounding country he was enabled, after once ascer-. REMARKABLE ESCAPES. 437 taining the general direction taken by the savages,to follow the trail with unerring sagacity. Insteadof traveling directly in the steps of the Indians, heoften gained on them by avoiding the difficult pathswhich they had chosen, and steering courses aheadfor points which he knew would lie in their line ofmarch. Finally, toward evening of the second day,while following a small stream, he discovered thewater newly thrown upon the rocks, and, orderinghis men to proceed with the utmost caution, creptforward on hands and knees until he heard, imme-diately in front of him, the tread of soft now stood still and waited for the party to getfar enough in the advance for him to follow withoutdanger of discovery, and then resumed the pursuit. Shortly after dark he saw the sudden glimmer ofa fire, and he concluded that the sava
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, booksubjectindian, booksubjectindiancaptivities
