Strange Stories of Colonial Days Read online

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  [See page 43

  HE MANAGED TO PULL HIM UP BEHIND]

  STRANGE STORIES

  OF

  COLONIAL DAYS

  BY

  FRANCIS STERNE PALMER, G. T. FERRIS HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH FRANCIS S. DRAKE ROWAN STEVENS AND OTHERS

  ILLUSTRATED

 

  NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS

  Copyright, 1907, by Harper & Brothers.

  ***

  All rights reserved.

  Published May, 1907.

  CONTENTS

  I THE CROWNING OF POWHATAN Adventures in Early Indian History By Francis S. Drake

  II CORNELIS LABDEN'S LEAP A Legend of 1645 Retold By G. T. Ferris

  III TOMMY TEN-CANOES A Tale of King Philip's Scouts By Hezekiah Butterworth

  IV JONATHAN'S ESCAPE A Young Hero of Hadley who Fought at Turner's Falls in 1676 By Robert H. Fuller

  V THE CROWN OF AN AMERICAN QUEEN In the Days of Bacon's Rebellion in Virginia By Sally Nelson Robins

  VI HOW A BLACKSMITH'S BOY BECAME A KNIGHT The Treasure-hunt of William Phipps in the late Seventeenth Century By Paul Hull

  VII THE GIRL CAPTAIN OF CASTLE DANGEROUS How Three Children Fought the Iroquois in 1692 By G. T. Lanigan

  VIII HOW MARC WAS MADE CAPTAIN A Rescue from the "Lords of the Woods" in 1695 By Francis Sterne Palmer

  IX CAPTAIN KIDD An Overrated Pirate By Rowan Stevens

  X HOWARD THE BUCCANEER A Captain of Many Ships By Rowan Stevens

  XI TEW, OF RHODE ISLAND A Fighter from the Seas By Rowan Stevens

  XII THE VROUW VAN TWINKLE'S KRULLERS A Story of Old New York By Agnes Carr Sage

  XIII THE SIGN OF THE SERPENT A Story of Louisiana in the Early Eighteenth Century By G. T. Ferris

  XIV A DRUMMER OF WARBURTON'S How a Boy Held Fort George at Cape Canso, in 1757 By Percie W. Hart

  XV ROGER'S RANGERS The Famous New Hampshire Scouts of the Old French War By Francis S. Drake

  XVI THE PLOT OF PONTIAC How Detroit was Saved in 1763 By Francis S. Drake

  ILLUSTRATIONS

  HE MANAGED TO PULL HIM UP BEHIND Frontispiece

  "MEIN VROUW! MEIN GILDREN!" THE DUTCHMAN GROANED Facing p. 16

  "GOOD-BYE, TOMMY FIVE-CANOES" " 32

  THE THONGS WERE CUT " 92

  HE PLUNDERED AND BURNED " 108

  THE HELPLESS PIRATES WERE SWEPT BACK " 122

  HE WAS KNOCKED OVERBOARD BY A PIKE-THRUST " 144

  SHE ROLLED AND PITCHED LIKE A MAD THING " 204

  INTRODUCTION

  These pictures of Colonial life and adventure make up a panorama whichextends from Powhatan and John Smith, in the days of the Jamestowncolony, to Pontiac's attempt upon Detroit in the period which precededthe Revolution. Here one may read stories which are strange indeed, ofKing Philip's War in New England, of a Dutch hero's exploit on theshores of Long Island Sound, of conflicts with the fierce Iroquois inthe North, of a young New Englander's successful treasure-hunt, and offamous or infamous pirates of Colonial times. They carry the reader froma boy's defence of Fort George in Nova Scotia to battle against theNatchez at an advance post of the Louisiana colony. For the most partthese thrilling tales are in the form of fiction, but it is fictionbased upon historical incidents. The imaginative stories, and otherswhich are historical narratives, will, it is believed, illustrate manyunfamiliar dramas in Colonial life, and will help to give a clearer viewof the men and boys who fought and endured to clear the way for us uponthis continent.

  STRANGE STORIES OF COLONIAL DAYS