Left alone with some
Indians, who were having a carousal, he overheard a proposal to kill the
young Yankee, and take his scalp to the fort, and sell it for rum. In a
few moments one of them took a large brand from the fire and hurled at
him, but being on the alert he dodged it, and made his escape. The Indians
pursued, but it was dark and they did not find him.
From the Delaware family, he was sold to an Indian of the Mohawk tribe,
called Captain David Hill. At a council of the British and Indians, he was
afterwards adopted with much ceremony, into the family of Captain Hill, as
his own son. He resided with him at the Mohawk settlement near the present
village of Lewiston, till the close of the war, and being surrendered in
accordance with the stipulations of the treaty at Fort Stanwix in 1784, he
returned once more to his own father's house.
It was with some effort he recovered again the use of his own native
tongue. During his captivity he had acquired and could speak fluently, the
language of five different tribes, and his qualifications as an
interpreter, together with his known faithfulness and integrity, coming to
the knowledge of our government, he received an appointment in the Indian
service, and during the greater part of his subsequent life, was actively
employed in business relating to the welfare of the Indians. He died at
his residence in Canandaigua, July 12th, 1836, in the sixty-ninth year of
his age.
Captain Horatio Jones, was a native of Chester county, Pennsylvania.
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