The old frontiersman never found his son; doubtless the boy was slain; but his fate, like the fate of hundreds of others, was swallowed up in the gloomy mystery of the wilderness.  So far from being unusual, the incident attracted no comment, for it was one of every-day occurrence.  Its only interest lies in the fact that it was of a kind that befell the family of almost every dweller in the wilds.  Danger and death were so common that the particular expression which each might take made small impress on the minds of the old pioneers.  Every one of them had a long score of slain friends and kinsfolk to avenge upon his savage foes.

    The Indians Harass the Regular Troops.

The subalterns in command of the little detachments which moved between the posts, whether they went by land or water, were forced to be ever on the watch against surprise and ambush.  This was particularly the case with the garrison at Vincennes.  The Wabash Indians were all the time out in parties to murder and plunder; and yet these same thieves and murderers were continually coming into town and strolling innocently about the fort; for it was impossible to tell the peaceful Indians from the hostile.  They were ever in communication with the equally treacherous and ferocious Miami tribes, to whose towns the war parties often brought five or six scalps in a day, and prisoners, too, doomed to a death of awful torture at the stake.  There is no need to waste sympathy on the northwestern Indians for their final fate; never were defeat and subjection more richly deserved.

The bands of fierce and crafty braves who lounged about the wooden fort at Vincennes watched eagerly the outgoing and incoming of the troops, and were prompt to dog and waylay any party they thought they could overcome.  They took advantage of the unwillingness of the Federal commander to harass Indians who might be friendly; and plotted at ease the destruction of the very troops who spent much of the time in keeping intruders off their lands.  In the summer of 1788 they twice followed parties of soldiers from the town, when they went down the Wabash, and attacked them by surprise, from the river-banks, as they sat in their boats.  In one instance, the lieutenant in command got off with the loss of but two or three men.  In the other, of the thirty-six soldiers who composed the party ten were killed, eight wounded, and the greater part of the provisions and goods they were conveying were captured; while the survivors, pushing down-stream, ultimately made their way to the Illinois towns. [Footnote:  State Dept.  MSS., No. 150, vol. iii.  Lt.  Spear to Harmar, June 2, 1788; Hamtranck to Harmar, Aug. 12, 1788.] This last tragedy was avenged by a band of thirty mounted riflemen from Kentucky, led by the noted backwoods fighter Hardin.  They had crossed the Ohio on a retaliatory foray, many of their horses having been stolen by the Indians.  When near Vincennes they happened to stumble on the war party that had attacked the soldiers, slew ten, and scattered the others to the winds, capturing thirty horses. [Footnote:  Draper MSS.  Wm. Clark Papers.  N. T. Dalton to W. Clark, Vincennes, Aug. 23, 1788; also Denny, p. 528.]