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with provisions for their journey sufficient to carry them among the inhabitants; after which they were directed, as the governor had before ordered, that they should produce his passport to the gentlemen of the country where they travelled, by whom they would be provided for; and the Nantikoke chief was further desired, upon their leaving the Nantikoke towns, to direct them to some of the chief gentlemen and officers of those parts, who would undoubtedly take care of them on sight of their passports, and thereby knowing their business, have them transported over the bay to Annapolis. Being further asked how they would get an interpreter in Virginia where the Indians knew nothing of their language, and some proposals being made to furnish them, they answered, there would be no occasion for any care of that kind, for they very well knew the Governor of Virginia had an interpreter for their language always with him.

Provisions being then ordered for their journey, as also at their desire, some for those of their company, who with their women and children were to return directly home by water up the river Susquehanna, viz: a bag of biscuit, some pieces of bacon and dried venison; these matters were concluded with great expressions of thankfulness for the governor's great care of them and their families, which kindness they said they never should forget.

The discourse being continued, they were told it was now very near (viz: within one moon of) thirty-seven years since a great man of England, Governor of Virginia, called the Lord Effingham, together with Colonel Dongan, Governor of New York, held a great treaty with them at Albany, of which we had the writings to this day.

Ghesaont answered, they knew it well and the subject of that treaty; it was, he said, about selling of lands. Being further told, that in that treaty the Five Nations had given up all their right to all the lands on the Susquehanna to the Duke of York, then brother to the King of England, he acknowledged this to be so, and that William Penn since had the right to these lands, to which Civility, a descendant of the ancient Susquehanna Indians, the old settlers of these parts, but now reputed as of an Iroquois descent, added that he had been informed by their old men, that they were troubled when they heard that their lands had been given up to a place so far distant as New York, and that they were overjoyed when they understood William Penn had brought them back again, and that they had confirmed all their right to him.

Divers questions were further asked him, especially concerning the French of Canada, their trade and fortifications; on which he said, that the French had three forts on this side of the river St, Lawrence, and between their towns and Montreal, furnished with great numbers of great guns; that the French drove a great trade with them, had people constantly in, or going to and coming from their towns; that the French kept young people in their towns on purpose to learn the Indian language, which many of them now spoke as well as themselves; that they had a great intercourse with them; that about three hundred of their men (viz: of the Five Nations) were seated on the

other side of the great river; that the French had this last spring begun to build or to provide for building a fort at Niagara Falls, but they had since declined it; he knew not for what reason, and they (the French) had sent to his town (the Isanandonas) this last winter a great deal of powder to be distributed among them, but nothing was done upon it. Being particularly asked whether the French had ever treated with them about any of their land, or whether the Indians had ever granted the French any, he answered No! that his people knew the French too well to treat with them about lands; they had never done it, nor ever granted them any upon any account whatsoever; and of this, he said, we might assure ourselves. Thus the day was spent in such discourses, with a pipe and some small mixed liquors; and the next morning Ghesaont, with the rest of his company, returning from the Indian town to John Cartlidge's, took their leaves very affectionately with great expressions of thankfulness to the gov ernor and this government for their kind reception.

CHAPTER XXVI.

MASSACRE OF THE CONESTOGA INDIANS IN PENNSYLVANIA.

An almost uninterrupted friendship seems to have existed between the Indians and the inhabitants of Pennsylvania, until the year 1754. At this period the French had stirred up the Indians in the back country, and an Indian war commenced.

About ten years after that, when "many," says Mr. Proud, "who had been continually flocking into the province, in later years, having from their inexperience and ignorance, too despicable an opinion of that people, and treating them accordingly, were by this conduct foolishly enraged against the whole species indiscriminately; insomuch, that in the latter part of the year 1763, calling to their aid the madness of the wildest enthusiasm, with which, under pretence of religion, certain most furious zealots among the preachers of a numerous sect, in the province, could, inspire their hearers, to cover their barbarity, a number of, not improperly named, armed demisavages, inhabitants of Lancaster county, principally from the townships of Paxtang and Donegal, and their neighborhood, committed the most horrible massacre that ever was heard of in this, or perhaps any other province with impunity! and under the notion of extirpating the heathen from the earth, as Joshua did of old, that these saints might possess the land alone," &c. Thus begins the narrative.

"These Indians were the remains of a tribe of the Six Nations, settled at Conestoga, and thence called Conestoga Indians. On the first arrival of the English in Pennsylvania, messengers from this tribe came to welcome them, with presents of venison, corn and skins; and the whole tribe entered into a treaty of friendship with the first

'proprietary, William Penn; which was to last as long as the sun should shine, or the waters run in the rivers.

This treaty has been since frequently renewed, and the chain brightened, as they express it, from time to time. It has never been violated on their part, or ours, till now. As their lands, by degrees, were mostly purchased, and the settlement of the white people began to surround them, the proprietor assigned them lands on the manor of Conestoga, which they might not part with; there they have lived many years, in friendship with their white neighbors, who loved them for their peaceable, inoffensive behaviour,

It has always been observed, that Indians, settled in the neighborhood of white people, do not increase, but diminish continually. This tribe accordingly went on diminishing, till there remained in their town, on the minor, but twenty persons; namely, seven men, five women, and eight children, boys and girls.

Of these, Shehaes was a very old man, having assisted at the second treaty, held with them by Mr. Penn, in 1701, and ever since continued a faithful friend to the English; he is said to have been an exceeding good man, considering his education, being naturally of a most kind, benevolent temper.

This little society continued the custom they had begun, when more numerous, of addressing every new governor, and every descendant of the first proprietary, welcoming him to the province, assuring him of their fidelity, and praying a continuance of that favor and protection which they had hitherto experienced. They had accordingly sent up an address of this kind to our present Governor (John Penn, Esquire) on his arrival; but the same was scarcely delivered when the unfor tunate catastrophe happened which we are about to relate.

On Wednesday, the 14th of December, 1763, fifty-seven men from some of our frontier townships, who had projected the destruction of this little commonwealth, came all well mounted, and armed with firelocks, hangers and hatchets, having travelled through the country in the night to Conestoga manor. There they surrounded the small village of Indian huts, and just at break of day broke in upon them all at once. Only three men, two women, and a young boy were found at home, the rest being out among the neighboring white people; some to sell their baskets, brooms and bowls, they manufactured, and others on other occasions. These poor defenceless creatures were immediately fired upon, stabbed and hatcheted to death! The good Shehaes, among the rest, cut to pieces in his bed! All of them were scalped, and otherwise horribly mangled. Then their huts were set on fire, and most of them burned down.

The magistrates of Lancaster sent out to collect the remaining Indians, brought them into the town, for their better security against any further attempt; and, it is said, condoled with them on the misfortune that had happened, took them by the hand, and promised them protection.

They were put into the workhouse, a strong building, as the place of greatest safety.

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These cruel men again assembled themselves; and hearing that the remaining fourteen Indians were in the workhouse at Lancaster, they suddenly appeared before that town, on the 27th of December. Fifty of them, armed as before, dismounting, went directly to the workhouse, and by violence broke open the door, and entered with the utmost fury in their countenances. When the poor wretches saw they had no protection nigh, nor could possibly escape, and being without the least weapon of defence, they divided their little families, the children clinging to their parents; they fell on their faces, protested their innocence, declared their love to the English, and that, in their whole lives, they had never done them injury; and in this posture, they all received the hatchet! Men, women and children, were every one inhumanly murdered in cold blood!

The barbarous men, who committed the atrocious act, in defiance of government, of all laws, human and divine, and, to the eternal disgrace of their country and color, then mounted their horses, huzzaed in triumph, as if they had gained a victory, and rode off unmolested!

The bodies of the murdered were then brought out, and exposed in the street, till a hole could be made in the earth, to receive and cover them.* But the wickedness cannot be covered, and the guilt will lie on the whole land, till justice is done to the murderers. The blood of the innocent will cry to heaven for vengeance.

Notwithstanding the proclamations and endeavors of the governor on the occasion, the murderers having given out such threatenings against those that disapproved their proceedings, the whole country seems to be in terror, and no one durst speak what he knows; even the letters from thence are unsigned, in which any dislike is expressed of the rioters.'

Mr. Proud adds to the above narrative, that, "So far had the infection spread, which caused this action, or so much had fear seized the minds of the people, or perhaps both, that neither the printer nor the writer of this publication, though supposed to be as nearly connected as Franklin and Hall were at that time, and men of the first character in their way, did not insert either their names, or places of abode, in it! It was printed while the insurgents were preparing to advance towards Philadelphia, or on their way thither; it appeared to have some effect in preventing the threatened consequences, by exciting an exertion of endeavors in the citizens for that purpose; and being a relation of real facts, though written in a hurry, it was never answered or contradicted."

* In the month of May, 1833, while the laborers were engaged in excavating on the Columbia and Philadelphia railroad, in the city of Lancaster, near the northeast corner of Orange and Duke streets, on the property of Jacob Hensel, a considerable number of human bones were dug up by the workmen employed on the railroad route. They were generally supposed to be the remains of the Indians destroyed in the above massacre by the "Paxton Boys." Some of the oldest citizens state, that the bodies were interred somewhere in the vicinity of the locality where the bones have been found.-Compiler, Events in Indian History.

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Extract from Heckewelder's Narrative.

[We find the following particulars of this sad massacre in Heckewelder's Narrative, and as the accounts are somewhat contradictory, as regards the persons who were the perpetrators, we can have every reliance on the description here given.]

A party of fifty-seven white people, bearing the name of Christians,* set out from Paxton, to attack and destroy a small settlement of peaceable and inoffensive Indians in Conestoga, near Lancaster, where they had resided for more than a century, and whose ancestors had been among those who had welcomed William Penn on his first arrival in this country, presenting him at the time with venison, &c. These not happening to be all at home at the time, some being scattered among their white neighbors, they murdered those they met with, to the number of fourteen persons, men, women, and children; the rest, learning what had befallen their friends and relations, fled, by the advice of their friendly neighbors, to Lancaster, for protection, and were there placed in the jail for safety,-where, however, this mob party, now under the name of Paxton boys, arrived; and having broken open the door, entered, and most cruelly murdered every one of them, although they begged on their knees that their lives might be spared, they being real friends of the English. The mob was so intoxicated with their success, that after they had finished their inhuman butchery on those truly innocent Indians, they threw their mangled bodies into the street,† and with a dreadful shout, as if they had gained a great victory, threatened that the Indians on Province Island, (the Christian Indians, together with Papunhak's peaceable party,) should soon share the same fate.

Note. That there appeared to be something unaccountable in this affair, will be seen from the following extract of a letter, addressed to the writer of this narrative by a respectable and intelligent gentlemanţ of Philadelphia. "There are," says he, "few, if any, murders to be compared with the cruel murder committed on the Conestoga Indians in the jail of Lancaster, in 1763, by the Paxton boys, (as they were then called). From fifteen to twenty Indians, as report stated, were placed there for protection. A regiment of Highlanders were at that time quartered at the barracks in the town, and yet these murderers were permitted to break open the doors of the city jail and commit the horrid deed. The first notice I had of this affair was, that while at my father's store, near the court-house, I saw a number of people running down street towards the jail, which enticed me and other lads to follow them. At about sixty or eighty yards from the jail, we met from twenty-five to thirty men, well mounted on horses, and with

*In an account given by Arthur B. Bradford, a company of Presbyterians, from Paxtang township, are blamed for this inhuman slaughter of the poor Indians. See Hazard's Reg. Penn., Vol. 9, page 14,

So the public papers stated, but ought to be Prison Yard.
William Henry, Esq., then an inhabitant of Lancaster.

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