"That was a fatherly one," was his calm expression, and whatever was
thought, little was said. We weathered and entered the bay silently, but
with feelings such as a man may be supposed to have when there is but a
step between him and death.
We ascended the Miami Valley, through scenes renowned by the events of
two or three wars. I walked over the scene of Dudley's defeat in 1812;
of Wayne's victory in 1793; and of the sites of forts Deposit and
Defiance, and other events celebrated in history. From Fort Defiance,
which is at the junction of the River _Auglaize_, we rode to Fort Wayne,
sleeping in a deserted hut half way. We passed the summit to the source
of the Wabash, horseback, sleeping at an Indian house, where all the men
were drunk, and kept up a howling that would have done credit to a pack
of hungry wolves. The Canadians, who managed our canoe, in the mean time
brought it from water to water on their shoulders, and we again
embarked, leaving our horses at the forks of the Wabash. The whole of
this long and splendid valley, then wild and in the state of nature,
till below the Tippecanoe, we traversed, day by day, stopping at
Vincennes, Terrehaute, and a hundred other points, and entered the Ohio
and landed safely at Shawneetown.
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