from the Indians. They had heard the firing, and the yelling in pursuit, and had no doubt about the cause, and had concluded it possible, from the length of time and the direction of the noise, that McArthur might have effected his escape. Nathaniel Beasley and Thomas Treacle were not the kind of men to fly at the approach of danger, and forsake a comrade. McArthur saw the canoe, and made a signal to them to come ashore. They did so, and McArthur was soon in the canoe, in the middle of the stream, and out of danger. Thus ended this day's adventures of the spies and their packet-boat, and this was the last attack made by the Indians upon a boat in the Ohio river.

Till late in the fall of this year he was retained in this arduous and dangerous employment. At the approach of the winter, and after the severe chastisement of the Indians by General Wayne's army, there was a cessation of arms, and the spies were discharged. McArthur's disposition was for constant action. When he was unemployed he was as restless (to use one of the backwoods' comparisons) as a wild animal chained. The winter of 1794 and '95 was just setting in. He could choose either to return to the salt lick and make salt, or go to the woods and hunt and trap. While he was settling a plan for his winter operations, he fell in with Mr. George Hardick, an experienced hunter and trapper, who was never at ease but when he was ranging through the solitary woods. McArthur and Hardick were kindred spirits, who never quailed at danger, or wearied by labor. They agreed to go in partnership for a winter hunt. They made a light canoe, ammunition and beaver traps were procured, and our adventurers set off from Manchester, down the Ohio to the mouth of the Kentucky river, thence up the Kentucky river far above the settlements. Game of every description was Deer and buffalo were killed for

found in abundance.

their tallow and hides. Beaver and otter were the principal game pursued, and were caught in considerable numbers. They went up the Kentucky river as far as they could find water to float their canoe. About the middle of January the river froze up, and they could neither move their canoe backward nor forward. Here they built a close hut, in which to secure the proceeds of their hunt from the depredations of wolves and other wild animals. They left their canoe, peltry, &c., packed their traps, ammunition, and blankets, on their backs, and proceeded up the main branch of the Kentucky river, as far as the beaver could find water in which to swim. In this way, these two backwoodsmen spent their winter in the midst of the spurs of the Cumberland mountains, more than one hundred miles from the habitations of civilized men. Although their hunting range was sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other of the old war-path, on which the Indians from the south went to visit and assist their friends north of the Ohio river, yet during the winter they saw no fresh sign of Indians.

As soon as the winter broke, and the ice and snow melted, they returned to their hut, loaded their canoe, and leisurely went down the river, stopping to trap wherever they saw signs of game. They continued down the Kentucky river to its mouth, thence up the Ohio to Cincinnati. Here they disposed of the proceeds of their hunt to some advantage. They then returned to Manchester. Look, reader, at the map of Kentucky, and trace the route of these men from Manchester in Ohio, to the mouth of the Kentucky river, thence up the Kentucky river to the Cumberland mountains, and you can form some faint idea of the toils and labors overcome, and of the perseverance of the old backwoodsmen, in pursuing any enterprise which once engaged their attention.

In the month of March, 1795, he again went on a

surveying tour with General Massie. This expedition was subsequently called the "starving tour," for a description of which read the life of General Massie. On this distressing expedition McArthur distinguished himself for his patience under the most severe privations. Being strong and robust, he was capable of enduring more toil than most men. His perseverance rendered him valuable in such trying circumstances. From this time forward his destiny was closely linked with that of Gen. Massie.

During the summer Gen. Wayne made a treaty of peace with the Indians, and the prospects of the white settlers in the western country were more flattering than at any former period in their history. The ground on which every station was erected in the western country, had been heretofore battle ground. While working their corn-patches, sentinels were constantly required to guard those at labor. Notwithstanding the utmost vigilance, many were shot or tomahawked by the enemy. Their steady perseverance had caused a day of brighter auspices to break forth. The red man, notwithstanding “his soul is great-his arm is strong-his battles full of fame," with all his bravery and stratagem, was compelled to yield to his more civilized neighbor. A new epoch is just dawning. The vast wilds of the west are now open to emigration. The dense population east of the Alleghany mountains are standing on tip-toe, watching the issue of this long and direful conflict of arms. At length in the month of August, 1795, from Fort Greenville, Gen. Wayne sends forth the glad tidings to the west, that peace is made with the red man. No more sentinels were necessary to guard the plowman at his labor. The population east of the mountains, and also from Europe, make a rush into the western wilderness, and a new world arises. The states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and Michigan, now sustaining their millions of