The reader will now observe that all the frontier settlements of the English colonies, and also those of Canada, were in a deplorable condition. Everywhere the slaughter reigned with unabated fury. Scarcely an hour passed in which the news of some horrible massacre did not startle the inhabitants from their security. Day and night the war whoop sounded along the outskirts of the woods, and every moment a band of Indians could be seen flying across some open space, with scalps fluttering from their loins. Everywhere the people now fled to the forts for safety. The dwellings were deserted by their owners, and burned to the ground by the Indians. But happy were those who escaped. Hundreds and thousands received no warning, and perished beneath the tomahawk. The ranging parties who visited the scenes of slaughter beheld, in shapes too horrible for description, the half consumed bodies of men, women and children, still securely bound to the trees where they had prayed for death amid fiery tortures.

While strong bands of warriors were daily besieging the forts and harrassing the garrisons of the western forests, smaller but no less fierce war parties were skulking among the border woods, leaping out upon the settlements whenever an opportunity was presented, and murdering every Englishman, woman and child who came in their way. It was, perhaps, from the latter source that most of the suffering came upon the settlements. Among these bands there was none more destructive than one, about sixty in number, which ascended the Kenawha and ravaged the settlements along the banks of that river. From valley to valley they carried the bloody work, until every English person in their course was scalped. Sometimes they would take the unsuspecting families by surprise, but as often they would slaughter them under the guise of friendship. Thus they continued their march until they reached the little town cf Greenbrier, where all the inhabitants, having received warning of their approach, had fortified themselves into the house of Archibald Glendenning. Nearly one hundred people were now crowded into this house. The savages appeared, and at first seemed to be friendly. Some of them were admitted to the house while others gathered in clouds outside. In one

corner of the house sat an old lady who had recently received a slight injury. She inquired of one of the warriors whether or not he could cure her. He replied by plunging a knife into the wound, killing her instantly. At this the work of slaughter began. Nearly all were killed and scalped on the spot. The owner of the house snatched up one of his children and rushed from the house, but meeting a bullet from one of the savages on the outside, he fell dead in his tracks. A negro woman leaped out of one of the windows and ran to place of concealment. She was followed by her screaming children, and fearing lest they should betray her to the Indians, she killed them on the spot. Such was the awful horror of the moment!

Among those taken prisoners at this affray was the wife of Glendenning, the mistress of the house. She was a woman of great fortitude, and far from allowing her fears from overcoming her, she began to abuse her captors for acting as they had. "Neither the tomahawk which they brandished over her head, nor the scalp of her murdered husband, with which they struck her in the face, could silence the undaunted virago."

When the massacre had been finished, the Indians captured all the horses, and packing up the plunder, they started with a large number of prisoners. Mrs. Glendenning and her infant child was placed among the captives. As they marched along through the thick woods, she handed her child to a woman who was walking beside her, and leaving it to a terrible fate, she escaped through the woods. Before nightfall she returned to the spot from whence they had started and beheld the smouldering embers of her house. She found the dead body of her husband and buried it beneath fence rails to protect it from the wolves.

Not long after this butchery, a man chanced to be passing by a log school-house on the western frontier of Pennsylvania, and being struck with its silence, he pushed open the door and looked within. "In the center lay the master scalped and lifeless, with a Bible clasped in his hands, while around the room were strewn the bodies of his pupils, nine in number, miserably mangled, though one of them still retained a spark

of life." It was afterwards known that the horrible deed had been committed by one of those bands of Indians.

Thus I might go on until the whole volume was filled with horrors like these, but I must hasten to push the narrative westward to a later day. It will suffice, therefore, to say that every detail of the war upon the settlements was full of woe. Everywhere the hand of the fierce Indian was felt; everywhere the people fell back to the older cities for safety or perished beneath the scalping knife.

One of the great features of the sufferings of this period was endured by those who were taken prisoners and conducted to the Indian villages. The torture which these unfortunate persons endured will never be told. Indeed, at this late day, it is better that these torments be passed over. Many of these narratives are too full of horror to receive credence, while most of them are of a character that cannot fail to shock the reader beyond endurance.

As the news of increasing disaster, as well as flocks of refugees, reached the eastern towns and cities, measures were taken for the relief of the frontier. Private contributions were made for the relief of the sufferers, and the several provincial governments adopted such measures as the situation seemed to require. In this matter, however, Pennsylvania was rather slow. There was a majority of Quakers in the assembly, and these singular persons were unwilling to believe that the outbreak of the Indians was not based upon good reasons. They however passed a bill for "raising and equipping a force of seven hundred men, to be composed of frontier farmers, and to be kept in pay only during the time of harvest. They were not to leave the settled parts of the province to engage in offensive operations of any kind, nor even to perform garrison duty, their sole object being to enable the people to gather in their crops unmolested." This force was distributed along the whole frontier of Pennsylvania. Two companies assigned to the defense of Lancaster county were placed under the command of a clergyman, Rev. John Elder, pastor of the Presbyterian church of Paxton. He is said to have discharged his military duties in a highly satisfactory manner.

The feeble measures adopted by the assembly of Pennsylvania called out loud disapproval both among the people of that province and in the neighboring colonies. In Virginia the Governor and council at once called out a thousand of the militia, five hundred being placed under Colonel Stephens and five hundred under Major Lewis. These forces marched against the hostile tribes on the borders of Virginia and did good service. They routed the savages at every point and restored confidence among the settlers.

But with her feeble defenses Pennsylvania continued to suffer. They now no longer waited for the action of their government, but arming themselves, they organized for their own defense. These new forces were directed against the Susquehanna villages, and after great slaughter they were destroyed. An expedition was now set on foot against the settlers of Wyoming on the east branch of the Susquehanna. The object of the expedition was to remove these settlers who had come there contrary to the laws of Pennsylvania, and to destroy their corn and provisions, which might otherwise fall into the hands of the enemy. The party started from Harris' Ferry under the command of Major Clayton, and reached Wyoming on the seventeenth of October. They were too late. The Indians had been there before them, and now the settlement was reduced to ashes. The bodies of its unfortunate inmates were brutally mutilated. Twenty had been killed or captured. Having buried the dead bodies of those who had perished in the massacre, Clayton returned with his party to Pennsylvania. Notwithstanding these evidences of danger, and that petitions from the borders were daily arriving, the Quakers remained firm in their inactive policy.

Sir Jeffery Amherst had now resigned his office of Commander-in-Chief, and General Gage was appointed in his place. Before Amherst sailed for Europe he had made a requisition upon all the provinces for troops to march against the Indians early in the spring of 1764, and as soon as Gage arrived he confirmed this course. The requisition was complied with and the troops were raised.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE MORAVIAN MISSIONS-THEIR REMOVAL-DIFFICULTIES IN PHILADELPHIA - ADVANCE OF THE PAXTON MEN-GREAT EXCITEMENT THE QUAKERS VOLUNTEERING TO ENTER THE ARMY-THE DIFFICULTY SETTLED.

IN THE autumn of 1763, the war had spread from the Carolinas on the south to Nova Scotia on the north and east. Everywhere in the intervening provinces their border settlements were sorely harrassed. Over two thousand persons had been killed, or carried off, and nearly that number of families had been driven from their homes. On the borders of Pennsylvania, the settlers were now fighting the Indians on the one hand and the Quakers on the other. They declared that the latter would go farther to befriend a murdering Delaware than to protect the borders. This feeling against the Quakers was not confined to the low. The magistrates and the clergy were its principal votaries. The borderers in this section were now placed between two fires, and they resolved on vent. The Paxton men, who, as we have already seen, were commanded by a clergymen, led the way in this work. The slaughter of the Indians at the Manor of Canestoga, and the breaking of the jail and murder of Indians at Lancaster, were among the atrocities which these fierce borderers, now goaded to desperation, openly committed. Mr. Elder, their leader, however, remonstrated with them, but failed to dissuade them from their design. The tidings of his massacre threw the country into excitement. Few regarded it as a willful and deliberate crime, while many looked upon it as the mistaken act of rash men, fevered to desperation by wrongs and sufferings. Immediately following these events, the war upon the borders increased in violence, and the excitement, throughout the (129)

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