Indian camps, the women becoming the slaves or wives of the warriors, [Footnote:  Occasionally we come across records of the women afterwards making their escape; very rarely they took their half-breed babies with them.  De Haas mentions one such case where the husband, though he received his wife well, always hated the copper-colored addition to his family; the latter, by the way, grew up a thorough Indian, could not be educated, and finally ran away, joined the Revolutionary army, and was never heard of afterwards.] while the children were adopted into the tribe, and grew up precisely like their little red-skinned playmates.  Sometimes, when they had come to full growth, they rejoined the whites; but generally they were enthralled by the wild freedom and fascination of their forest life, and never forsook their adopted tribesmen, remaining inveterate foes of their own color.  Among the ever-recurring:  tragedies of the frontier, not the least sorrowful was the recovery of these long-missing children by their parents, only to find that they had lost all remembrance of and love for their father and mother, and had become irreclaimable savages, who eagerly grasped the first chance to flee from the intolerable irksomeness and restraint of civilized life. [Footnote:  For an instance where a boy finally returned, see “Trans-Alleghany Pioneers,” p. 119; see also pp. 126, 132, 133, for instances of the capture and treatment of whites by Indians.]

    The Attack on Wheeling.

Among others, the stockade at Wheeling [Footnote:  Fort Henry.  For an account of the siege, see De Haas, pp. 223-340.  It took place in the early days of September.] was attacked by two or three hundred Indians; with them came a party of Detroit Rangers, marshalled by drum and fife, and carrying the British colors. [Footnote The accounts of the different sieges of Wheeling were first written down from the statements of the pioneers when they had grown very aged.  In consequence, there is much uncertainty as to the various incidents.  Thus there seems to be a doubt whether Girty did or did not command the Indians in this first siege.  The frontiersmen hated Girty as they did no other man, and he was credited with numerous actions done by other white leaders of the Indians; the British accounts say comparatively little about him.  He seems to have often fought with the Indians as one of their own number, while his associates led organized bands of rangers; he was thus more often brought into contact with the frontiersmen, but was really hardly as dangerous a foe to them as were one or two of his tory companions.] Most of the men inside the fort were drawn out by a stratagem, fell into an ambuscade, and were slain; but the remainder made good the defence, helped by the women, who ran the lead into bullets, cooled and loaded the guns, and even, when the rush was made, assisted to repel it by firing through the loopholes.  After making a determined effort to storm the stockade, in which