The Daily Advertiser

From the Kentucky Gazette of April 4.

It is with the most sensible concern we announce to the public the capture of three boats, on the Ohio, near the Big Miami, by the Savages. Familiarized as we have been for several weeks past, to murder and robbery, at almost every point of our frontiers, the sympathy of all ranks has been excited in an extraordinary degree by this deeply affecting catastrophe. Among the passengers in the boats, it is with great regret we mention Samuel Purviance, Esq. of Baltimore-town, Mr. Ridout, of Maryland. Mess. Rigaut, and two other French gentlemen, one a mineralist, the other a Botanist, destined to explore the natural products of this country, a Mr. Pierce, of Maryland, and a Mr. Ferguson, a trader: besides these gentlemen, there was a Mr. Gray, Garland Simmons, five other men, and a Negro woman. The three French gentlemen and Mr. Pierce, who alone occupied one boat, were attacked on the 26th ult. from circumstances we are authorized to conclude, that the other boats were taken on the 21st, as they passed Limestone on the 19th. The Savages had in their possession a flat, in which eight or ten of them gave chase to the French gentlemen, who, finding they could not escape, determined to present a white handkerchief, with other demonstrations of friendship, and surrender without resistance; for this purpose Mr. Rigaut took post at the stern of the boat, and when the Savages had approached very near, he offered his hand, and in return received the barbarian's tomahawk; at the instant the Botanist was shot dead, and the mineralist badly wounded; the boat at this time had drifted near the shore. Mr. Pierce and the surviving French gentleman jumped overboard, and the current being rapid, the Savages pursued them, whilst they were butchering and plundering Mr. Rigaut and the other victim. They with difficulty gained the shore, and under cover of the night made a circuit, and fell in with the river below the Savages, where they were, the next day, taken up by a boat, and conveyed to the Rapids the day after. These are all the circumstances we have been able to collect on this melancholy occasion. There remains no doubt that the two boats first mentioned have been captured, as one of them has been taken up at the Rapids, and the other was seen in possession of the Savages, but the fate of the captives is uncertain. Two boats, a few hours in front of Mr. Rigaut, under the directions of Capt. Balliard Smith and a Mr. Hinds, were attacked at the same place from the shore, but they returned the fire, and escaped without further injury than two horses wounded; and it is said two Indians were killed in this attack.