A Desperate Escape

The dreadful Indian massacre of '62 depopulated whole counties of newly settled territory in a single day- the 18th of August - and drovo f rom the Minnesota frontiers thousands of pcople in a few days' time. During this eventful period thero were many thrilling and desperate adventuresand hairbreadth escapes. The local historians, who published narratives gathered at haphazard at the time, did all they could to cover the ground of incident. The main f acts and causes of the bloody uprising have been compiled and preserved in severa! volumes published at St. Peter and St. Paul. In one of these, several paragraphs are devoted to the murder of the men in charge of the stores at the isolated trading post on the eastern shore of Big Stone lake. This account briefly relates the desperate escape of a French and Indian boy, Baptisto or "Bat" Gubeau - as this common name among the Canadian French is frequently abbreviated. In the Minnesota massacre it was Little Crow's ruthless policy to extermínate all the whites west of the Mississippi. Every one with white blood in his veins who could not or would not take part against the settlers was to be killed. Contrary to the usual rule In Indian wars the fur trader, from the very circumstance tbat he fancied he was safe, feil a swif t and easy victim to the rifle and hatchet of the Sioux. All the employés of the four stores and ware houses at Big Stone, Myrick's, Forbes', Roberts', Pratt & Co. 's were eilher French babitans or half and quarter bloods of that extraction. Among those of mixed blood was the "ware house boy," Bat Gubeau. On the 21st of August four of Roberts' men. Bat and three Canadians, Patnode, Laundre and Pachette, were cutting hay on a marsh near the lake shore below the post. They were at work in their loose shirts and leggings, mowing with scythes, one following the other. Without a second's warning a party of "Blanket" Sioux came up out of the tall grass a few rods distan t and began uring upon them. Patnode, Pachette and Laundre, who were ahead of Bat and most exposed to to the Indian fire, were killed almost at the flrst shot. Young Gubeau saved his lifo from their flre by quick wittedly throwing himself forward upon his face as though shot, lying across the swath and blade of his scythe. The Indians scalped his comrades and stripped them of their hats audshoes; then several of them came to him and turned him over. He knew his captors well and could understand their language almost as well as the patois of his Canadian parents. "Don't kili me," said he. "Why did you shoot those men} they were always your friends." "We killed them," one replied, with black looks, "becauso all whites and fur men have always cheated and lied to the Indians, and we'll kill you because you are a dog of a, mixed blood. We shall kill you when tho sun goes down, after a scalp dance and after the squaws have burned the Indian blood out of your body with brands from their fires." This is, in effect, what the savages said as near as Baptiste could interpret it in his broken English. The speaker was a Wapekutu medicine man well kuown at the trading post asa malignant hater of the white men and a constant fomenter of bad feeling among his own people. Whüe two of the Indians were tying Bat's hands behind him with strips of buckskin, the medicine man began prancing around and telling, in a boastful chant, the murders which had been committed upon the white settlers at tbs Lower Agency, at Beaver Creek and Birch Coolie. He sang boastfully that but two suns more would pass before every whito man west of Minnehaha would die. Tho Sioux nation, possessed of the guns and ammunition taken from the dead settlers and soldiers, could hold its country and beat back the white people always. Then he warmed up and began recounting, after the whooping, singsong fashion of his kind, the exploits of himself and the otbers with him. The possession of a prisoner who could understand their peculiar chants and the braggings in which they so like to indulge was unusual good fortune. The vauntings of the medicine man seemed to act upon tho savages like tho banef ui charm some reptiles are said to exercise. One by one they threw aside their weapons and joinod the medicine man in his weird leaps and chantings about the prisoner. Bat said not a word, but sat quietly, his shrewd eyes watching f or a chance to break through tuo ring and escape. Ho was strong, lithe, and a swift runner, and a plan of action soon came to him. He feit that it was desperate enough, but it was bis only chance. A bayou or narrow bay ran up from the lake into the marsh upon which he and his compauions had been cutting hay, and the head of it was distant not moro than a ten minutes' run. This strip of water was grown thickly about with rushes, and was from four to six f eet deep. If he could break away, escape his pursuers' shots and outrua them, he thought he might ünd a h id ing place among the rushes until night should come on. About tho tune he had canvassed the chances of this plan, the Indians about him had begun to wind up their dancing, with a peculiar gyrating movement known among them as the moon dance. In it the dancers wheel slowly about bow leggedly, tetering first upon oue foot and then upon the other, and swaying the body from the hips in a Enake lika movcment. Tho head is rolled in Imitation of a lolling bear and the arms are worked writhingly whilo the wriggling savBge sings, ia a most lugubrious, grunting tone; 'E-yungh, e-yunghl Hi-yee, hi-yerl E-yongh, e-yoiigh!" The prisoner kept his eye upon ono of the Tnflinn whom he knew - for he knew them all well- to be the best runner among them. As this ono swung around between himnnlf and the line of retreat he had marked out, Bat sprang up and with au agilo jiuup plantad both heels of the army shoes he ore in the "small" of the dancer's back. The Indias went down with a sereech of pain and surprise, as the keen witted Canadian passed over hiin and shot away toward the lake. Certain that he had disabled their swiftest runner, Bat feit chiefly concerned for the moment in dodging bullets and arrows. He sprang this way and that at as slïarp angles as he could, and at the same time make good headway. Tho Indiaas caught up their guns instantly upon seeing vvhat had happened, but luckily only a few of their arms had been reloaded, and the shots aimed by Indians, breathless with the exertion of a shrieking dance, missed their target. Throwing down their guns the whole party gave chase, yelling frightfully, as is their fashion. Bat glanced backward, and saw them spreading out in pursuit, the gwif test runners heading straight for the bayou on either side. As there was no longer any danger from bullets, the boy put himself down to his utmost speed, and bont his head toward the nearest ji.nnt of rushes. He was hampered by having his hands tied behind, and the triumphant yells, which sounded a little louder at each passing minute, caused hlm to fear greatly that they would overtake hún. Over mowed ground, through tall grass for several minutes he ran like an antelope. He had gained a number of rods the start of the Indians while they were picking up their guns and flring, and this advantage was what saved his iife. He reached the low bank of the inlet in advance of the foremost Sioux, but so near were they that, as ho plunged among the rushes, a hatchet thrown by one of them swished past hia head, and dropped into the water in front. He threw himself headlong into the water, and dived amid tho rushes. Then he pushed himself along by kicking in the mud at the bottom. When bis breath gave out, he raised his head out long enough to get a f resh breath, then ducked it and shoved ahead. In this way he was speedily out of sight and reach of the Sioux, who did not follow him into the rushes. Hia pursuers spread out, and hurriedly surrounded the bayou in the hope, no doubt, to catch him in the grass as he attempte 1 to era wl out upon the other side. But Bat had no notion of going out of tho bayou at present. He found bottom shallow enough to stand upon, and then began working his wrists out of the thongs which bound them. This ho was soon ablo to do, as the water soa'.ced buckskin stretehed at every strain. He then waited and listened. Soon ho heard Indians talkiug upon tho bank of the bayou opposite his entrance. They were looking for liis trail at the edge of the water, and asking each other if he had crossed, and which way he would go. Finally one of them said, ''No, he is in there; the dog will not come out." Then all was quiet. Bat would not stir again, for fear he should bo discovered by the rattling of the rushes. The time wore on heavily. Toward uight mosquitoes rose out of the water, and pestered him frightfully. He dared not thresh about, for fear his whereabouts should be discovered and fired upon by lurking Indians. Bullets and buckshot were to be dreaded, even though rushes enough intervened to hide him completely, although the bank was only a few rods distant on either side. As the vieious insects alighted upon his faco and neck in swarms, he discovered a method of alleviating his sufferings. Every few seconds, as his face became black with them, and their stings began to make him wince, he would quickly and softly lower his head under the water, and hold it there as long as he could keep his breath. The cool water soothed the irritation of their bites, and gave him refuge from them a good part of the time. Darkness came at last, and with ita breoze which rustled the rushes, so that he could stir about without attracting attention by noise. He now speedily made use of his legs and arms in working his way down nearer the lake, where, in a thicket of tall cornstalk grass, he crawled out of the bayou, feeling stiff and waterlogged. He lay in the grass resting and listening for an hour or so, and then, bending low iu the grass, niado his way to the high land prairie, a milo or so distant. Not daring to attempt to reach Fort Ridgely through the country which he had learned from his captors was overrun by tho Sioux, he set out for St. Cloud, nearly 200 miles distant on the Mississippi. He trarcled three days and nights, occasionally dodging war parties of Sioux. During that time he lived upon roots and grass; these ho chewed and swallowed the juice. At length he walked into the streets of St. Cloud. Thero was a large gathering of nefctlers there, and the buildings, mostly of logs, had been fortified and put in a state of defense. Thero was a crowd of men in front of the first store ho reached on entering the village. Faint and exhausted, Bat pushed through them, and iskcd inside for something to eat A mimber of settlers and others immediately came inside, and in rough tones asked him what he, a half breed- he was a quarter blood - was doing among the whites. Bat tolil his story in broken EnglLsh, but the crowd, incensed at the hundrods of murders committed and the loss of f rienda and relatives, wero in a frenzied stato of fury at tho sight of one belonging to tho race which had committed such ravages. "He's a miserable spyl" shouted one of them. "A sneakin' Sioux, come among us to see how many they is uv as! Let's hang him!" Beardless, more than naturally swarthy from exposure, haggard and ugly in countenance from hungor and fatigue, Bat's appearance was against him. The crowd fiercely took up the cry, "Hang him!" The nearest men sprang forward and secured the unfortunate fellow. His hands were speedily tied with cord; from the stock of goods a rope was procured and he was hustled out of tho store by the incensed settlers, who declared their intention of stringing him to the first tree on the river bank. It was useless to plead or Btruggle, and despairingly the poor exhausted youth allowed himself to be dragged along the street. But a villager, who had the year before lived at Big Stone, pushed intOj tha crowd to have a look at the prisouer, and fortunately recognized Bat at once. "Hullo!" he shouted. "Stop this, men I I know that boy. He's one of Roberts' men at Big Stone." This, of courso, put an immediate end to the proceedings. An innocent lifo had nearly been sacriliced to tho intense feeling wrought up over tho treaeherous and wholesalo murdersso recently committed by Indians and half breeds all about them. It is hardly necessary to add that the men were sorrj' enough of their conduct when they learned of Bat's innocence, and that they treated him af terward with all the kmdness of whieh they were capablo.- Frank Welles Calkius in The Youth's Companion.