In July 1756, a Delaware war party abducted John M’Cullough from western Pennsylvania “to replace a dead kinsman.” He was ritually “dunked” in the Allegheny River (he said he was “nearly drowned”) by way of purification, and was told he was “then an Indian.” He was eight.
Seven years later, when his birth father tracked him down, he “wept bitterly.”
M’Cullough’s father tied him atop a horse and headed for Pittsburgh, but that night the boy slipped his cords and escaped back to the Delawares.
Liberty Is Sweet: The Hidden History of the American Revolution, p. 48
Kanlaon 