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78. Here a party of Indians appeared in canoes, led by a white man by the name of John Vaughn. After pretending to be friendly, and thus gaining admission to his boat through the assurance of this man Vaughn that their intentions were of a thoroughly friendly character, they soon began to throw over his goods into the canoes, break open his chest of treasure, and when Brown attempted to prevent this, he was struck down by an Indian, his head almost severed from his body. They were all taken ashore as captives, Vaughn insisting that these marauders would be punished when the chief arrived. Mrs. Brown, her son George, ten years old, and three small daughters were taken possession of by a party of Creek braves, while the Cherokees were deliberating on the fate of the other prisoners. In one short hour, this poor woman was deprived of husband, sons, friends, and liberty, and began her sad journey on foot along the rugged, flinty trails that led to the Creek towns on the Tallapoosa River. At this time there lived a man named Thomas Turnbridge, a French trader married to a woman who had been taken prisoner near Mobile and raised by the Indians. She had married an Indian brave and had a son twenty-two years old. This son desired to present to his mother some bright-eyed boy as a slave, for according to the savage code of the times, each captive became a slave to his captor. This woman's son was one of the marauding party who had seized Brown's boat, and from the first knew the fate of the party. He tried to induce little Joseph Brown to go with him, but the boy would not; but when the boat landed, he took Joseph to his stepfather Turnbridge, who in good English told the boy he lived near and asked him to spend the night with him. This the poor little frightened fellow consented to do, and while on his way out, he heard the rifles of these savage beasts who were murdering his brothers and friends. Later they came to the Turnbridge house, demanding that the boy be relinquished, and