"Zane Grey - Betty Zane" - читать интересную книгу автора (Grey Zane)

The keen axe, wielded by strong arms, soon opened the clearing and reared
stout log cabins on the river bluff. Then Ebenezer Zane and his followers
moved their families and soon the settlement began to grow and flourish. As
the little village commenced to prosper the redmen became troublesome.
Settlers were shot while plowing the fields or gathering the harvests. Bands
of hostile Indians prowled around and made it dangerous for anyone to leave
the clearing. Frequently the first person to appear in the early morning would
be shot at by an Indian concealed in the woods.

General George Rodgers Clark, commandant of the Western Military Department,
arrived at the village in 1774. As an attack from the savages was apprehended
during the year the settlers determined to erect a fort as a defense for the
infant settlement. It was planned by General Clark and built by the people
themselves. At first they called it Fort Fincastle, in honor of Lord Dunmore,
who, at the time of its erection, was Governor of the Colony of Virginia. In
1776 its name was changed to Fort. Henry, in honor of Patrick Henry.

For many years it remained the most famous fort on the frontier, having
withstood numberless Indian attacks and two memorable sieges, one in 1777,
which year is called the year of the "Bloody Sevens," and again in 1782. In
this last siege the British Rangers under Hamilton took part with the Indians,
making the attack practically the last battle of the Revolution.



BETTY ZANE

CHAPTER I.

The Zane family was a remarkable one in early days, and most of its members
are historical characters.

The first Zane of whom any trace can be found was a Dane of aristocratic
lineage, who was exiled from his country and came to America with William
Penn. He was prominent for several years in the new settlement founded by
Penn, and Zane street, Philadelphia, bears his name. Being a proud and
arrogant man, he soon became obnoxious to his Quaker brethren. He therefore
cut loose from them and emigrated to Virginia, settling on the Potomac river,
in what was then known as Berkeley county. There his five sons, and one
daughter, the heroine of this story, were born.

Ebenezer Zane, the eldest, was born October 7, 1747, and grew to manhood in
the Potomac valley. There he married Elizabeth McColloch, a sister of the
famous McColloch brothers so well known in frontier history.

Ebenezer was fortunate in having such a wife and no pioneer could have been
better blessed. She was not only a handsome woman, but one of remarkable force
of character as well as kindness of heart. She was particularly noted for a
rare skill in the treatment of illness, and her deftness in handling the
surgeon's knife and extracting a poisoned bullet or arrow from a wound had