In 1785 the Indians whom he met
seemed friendly; but on June 2, 1786, while on the Wabash, his canoe was
attacked by the savages, and two of his men were slain. He himself
escaped with difficulty, and reached Vincennes after an exhausting
journey, but having kept possession of his "two small trunks."
[Footnote: _Do_., Filson's Journal.]
Two or three weeks after this misadventure of the unlucky historian, a
party of twenty-five Americans, under a captain named Daniel
Sullivan, [Footnote: _Do_., Daniel Sullivan to G. R. Clark, June 23,
1786. Small's letter says June 21st.] were attacked while working in
their cornfields at Vincennes. [Footnote: State Dept. MSS. Papers
Continental Congress, No. 150, vol. ii., Letter of J. M. P. Legrace, "Au
General George Roge Clarck a la Chate" (at the Falls-Louisville), July
22, 1786.] They rallied and drove back the Indians, but two of their
number were wounded. One of the wounded fell for a moment into the hands
of the Indians and was scalped; and though he afterwards recovered, his
companions at the time expected him to die. They marched back to
Vincennes in furious anger, and finding an Indian in the house of a
Frenchman, they seized and dragged him to their block-house, where the
wife of the scalped man, whose name was Donelly, shot and scalped him.
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