Memoirs of a captivity among the Indians of North America, from childhood to the age of nineteen: with anecdotes descriptive of their manners and customs. To which is added, some account of the soil, climate, and vegetable productions of the territory westward of the Mississippi / [John Dunn Hunter].

  • Hunter, John Dunn, 1798?-1827.
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Memoirs of a captivity among the Indians of North America, from childhood to the age of nineteen: with anecdotes descriptive of their manners and customs. To which is added, some account of the soil, climate, and vegetable productions of the territory westward of the Mississippi / [John Dunn Hunter]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    repeated removals; nor should I mention this, only that it serves to account for the obscurity with which everything connected with my early life is surrounded. I was adopted into the family of one of the principal warriors, named Fongoh, who claimed me as his pro- perty, from having taken me prisoner; his wife, a squaw of an intermediate stature, and dark complexion, proved to me a kind and affectionate mother. It may appear somewhat extraordinary that I should recollect the above incidents so circumstantially, while others scarcely separated from them as to time, should have nearly or quite escaped my memory ; but such is the fact, though I am persuaded from the faint traces still remaining on my mind, could either my parents or the location of my childhood be presented to me at this time, in the same state or condition that they were in previous to my being taken by the Indians, that I should recognize them individually. But the probable massacre of the former, and the changes in respect to the latter, which have rapidly succeeded each other in the country where most likely my being first dawned, forbid the hope of ever realizing these, to me, desirable and important events. But notwithstanding this apparent incongruity in respect to memory, when the careless and playful manner in which children usually pass their time is taken into consideration, together with the violent changes that interrupted my youthful sports, the cause of surprise will, 1 am persuaded, cease to exist. With respect to my parents, it is highly probable, as I before observed, that they perished at the com- mencement of my captivity. This I infer from the