George Peck's WYOMING, 1858 - Pennsylvania - Chapter 17

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                                    WYOMING;

             ITS HISTORY, STIRRING INCIDENTS AND ROMANTIC ADVENTURES.

                              By GEORGE PECK, D.D.

                               WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

         NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE, 1858

NOAH HOPKINS.  369

                                     XVII.

                   NOAH HOPKINS - HIS LIFE SAVED BY A SPIDER.

    "To turn purveyor to an overgorged 
    And bloated spider, till the pampered beast 
    Is made familiar, watches his approach, 
    Comes at his call, and serves him for a friend." - Task.

  "It is not, I say, merely in a pious manner of expression that, the Scripture 
thus ascribeth every event to the providence of God, but it is strictly and 
philosophically true in nature and reason that there is no such thing as chance 
or accident." - Dr. S. CLARKE.

  THE following singular and providential escape we copy from the second edition 
of Colonel Stone's History of Wyoming.
  "Among the individual incidents marking this singular tragedy was the 
following: Some of the fugitives were pursued for a time by a portion of the 
Indians, and among them was a settler named Noah Hopkins - a wealthy man, from 
the county of Dutchess, in the State of New York, bordering upon Connecticut. He 
had disposed of a handsome landed patrimony in his native town, Amenia, and 
invested the proceeds as a shareholder of the Susquehanna Company, and in making 
preparations for removing to the new colony. Finding, by the sounds, that the 
Indians were upon his trail, after running a long distance he fortunately 
discovered the trunk of a large hollow tree upon the ground, into which he 
crept. After lying there several hours, his apprehensions of danger were greatly 
quickened by the tread of footsteps. They approached, and in a few moments two 
or three savages were actually seated upon the log in consultation. He heard the 
bullets rattle loosely in their pouches. They ac

370  WYOMING.

tually looked into the hollow trunk, suspecting that he might be there; but the 
examination must have been slight, as they discovered no traces of his presence. 
The object of their search, however, in after-life attributed his escape to the 
labors of a busy spider, which, after he crawled into the log, had been 
industriously engaged in weaving a web over the entrance. Perceiving this, the 
Indians supposed, as a matter of course, that the fugitive could not have 
entered there. After remaining in his place of concealment as long as nature 
could endure the confinement, Hopkins crept forth, wandering in the wilderness 
without food until he was on the point of famishing. In this situation, knowing 
that he could but die, he cautiously stole down into the Valley again, whence 
five days before he had fled. All was desolation there. The crops were 
destroyed, the cattle gone, and the smouldering brands and embers were all that 
remained of the houses. The Indians had retired, and the stillness of death 
prevailed. He roamed about for hours in search of something to satisfy the 
cravings of nature, fording or swimming the river twice in his search. At length 
he discerned the carcass of a wild turkey, shot on the morning of the massacre, 
but which had been left in the flight. He quickly stripped the bird of his 
feathers, although it had become somewhat offensive by lying in the sun, dressed 
it and washed it in the river, and the first meal he made therefrom was ever 
afterward pronounced the sweetest of his life. Upon the strength of this turkey, 
with such roots and herbs as he could gather in the way, he traveled until, 
after incredible hardships he was obliged to encounter - his clothes being torn 
from his limbs in the thickets, and his body badly lacerated - he once more 
found himself among the dwellings of civilized men."