Sometimes, when they had come to full growth, they rejoined the whites; but generally they were enthralled by the wild freedom and fascination of their forest life, and never forsook their adopted tribesmen, remaining inveterate foes of their own color.
Among the ever-recurring: tragedies of the frontier, not the least sorrowful was the recovery of these long-missing children by their parents, only to find that they had lost all remembrance of and love for their father and mother, and had become irreclaimable savages, who eagerly grasped the first chance to flee from the intolerable irksomeness and restraint of civilized life.

[Footnote: For an instance where a boy finally returned, see "Trans-Alleghany Pioneers," p.

119; see also pp.

126, 132, 133, for instances of the capture and treatment of whites by Indians.] The Attack on Wheeling.
Among others, the stockade at Wheeling [Footnote: Fort Henry.

For an account of the siege, see De Haas, pp.