Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/332

 308 HISTORY or and they were almost instantly surrounded by a large body of tliem. They fought like heroes, but were overpowered in numbers by the bloodthirsty demons, who as it seemed had at that moment risen from the very bowels of the earth. At length Murphy saw his associates fall one after another till there were but a few left ; at this period Murphy made a rush to pass the Indians, and himself and six others succeeded. Murphy ran with all possible speed, but the weeds and brush through which he had to pass, prevented in a measure his pro- gress; however, by jumping up and over the weeds, and being very expert in running, he easily outstripped all the Indians, except one, whom he turned to shoot several times, but be- lieving his gun unloaded, he determined to reserve his fire for the last exigency. Murphy succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the Indian, and secreted himself in a very dense collection of weeds, and there lay until the Indians came up and stood some distance from him. The Indian that first pursued him, now bent forward, and pointing in the direction in which he lay, exclaimed to his companions kong gwa,^' which in Eng- lish, means, " that way.'' Murphy jumped up and ran as fast as his limbs would carry him : the Indians fired several times at him, but with no efi"ect : he finally succeeded in getting en- tirely out of their view, and being, from fatigue, unable to pro- ceed farther, he secreted himself behind a large log. The In- dians came up to very near him, but supposing him to have passed on, they turned and went back. There was one cir- cumstance that happened during the heat of the affray, at which, though surrounded by the dead and the dying, and with not much hope of a better fate. Murphy, as himself states, could not refrain from laughing. It appears that there were among the Indians a negro, and an Irishman on the other side : — the paddy was chasing the poor negro with a long butcher knife, and every now and then making a desperate thrust at the most sensitive part of the poor fellow's seat of honor. Murphy