their stay at their encampment, with the mutual consent of both parties. A short time before the Indians left the place, they sent word to Col. Gibson, by the old Indian, that they were desirous of peace, and that if he would send them a barrel of flour they would send in their proposals the next day; but, although the Colonel complied with their request, they marched off without fulfilling their engagement.

The commander, supposing the whole number of the Indians had gone off, gave permission to Col. Clark, of the Pennsylvania line, to escort the invalids, to the number of eleven or twelve to Fort McIntosh. The whole number of this detachment was fifteen. The wary Indians had left a party behind, for the purpose of doing mischief. These attacked this party of invalids and their escort, about two miles from the fort, and killed the whole of them with the exception of four, amongst whom was the Captain, who ran back to the fort. On the same day a detachment went out from the fort, brought in the dead, and buried them with the honors of war, in front of the fort gate.

In three or four days after this disaster, a relief of seven hundred men, under Gen. McIntosh, arrived with a supply of provisions; a great part of which was lost by an untoward accident. When the relief had reached within one hundred yards of the fort, the garrison gave them a salute of a general discharge of musketry, at the report of which the pack horses took fright, broke loose and scattered the provisions in every direction through the woods, so that the greater part of it could never be again recovered.

Among other transactions which took place about this time, was that of gathering up the remains of the fourteen men who had fallen in the ambuscade during the winter for interment, and which could not be done during the investment of the place by the Indians. They were found mostly devoured by wolves. The fatigue party dug a large pit, large enough to contain the remains of all of them, and after depositing them in the pit, merely covering them with a little earth, with a view to have revenge on the wolves for devouring their companions, they cov. ered the pit with slender sticks, rotten wood, and bits of bark, not of sufficient strength to bear the weight of a wolf. On the top of this covering they pleaced meat as bait for the wolves. The next morning seven of them were found in the pit. They were shot and the pit filled up.

For about two weeks before the relief arrived, the garrison had been put on a short allowance of half a pound of sour flour, and an equal weight of spoiled meat, for every two days. The greater part of the last

week, they had nothing to subsist on but such roots as they could find in the woods and prairies, and raw hides. Two men lost their lives by eating wild parsnips, by mistake. Four more nearly shared the same fate, but were saved by medical aid.

On the evening of the arrival of the relief, two days' rations were issued to each man in the fort. These rations were intended as their allowance during their march to Fort M'Intosh; but many of the men, supposing to have been back rations, eat up the whole of their allowance before the next morning. In consequence of this imprudence, in eating immoderately, after such extreme starvation for the want of provisions, about forty of the men became faint and sick during the first day's march. On the second day, however, the sufferers were met by a great number of their friends from the settlements to which they belonged, by whom they were amply supplied with provisions.

Major Vernon, who succeeded Col. Gibson in the command of Fort Laurens, continued in its possession until the next fall, when the garrison, after being, like their predecessors, reduced almost to starvation, evacuated the place.

Thus ended the disasterous occupancy of Fort Laurens, in which much fatigue and suffering were endured, and many lives lost; but without any beneficial results to the country.

BRODHEAD'S CAMPAIGN.

This campaign took place in the summer of 1780, and was directed against the Indian villages at the forks of the Muskingum.

The place of rendezvous was Wheeling, where about eight hundred regulars and militia collected. From Wheeling, they made a rapid march by the nearest route to the Muskingum. When the army had reached the river, a little below Salem, the lowest Moravian town, Gen. Brodhead sent an express to the missionary of the place, the Rev. John Heckewelder, informing him of his arrival in the neighborhood with his army, requesting a small supply of provisions, and a visit from him in his camp. (1) The christian Indians sent the supply of provisions, and Mr. Hecke welder repaired to General Brodhead's camp. General Brodhead then said, "that being on an expedition against the hostile Indians, at or near the forks of the river, he was anxious to know before he proceeded any further, whether any of the christian Indians were out hunting, or on business in the direction he was going." Being answered in the negvtive, he declared that, "nothing would give him

1

greater pain, than to hear that any one of the Moravian Indians had been molested by his troops: as these Indians had conducted themselves from the commencement of the war, in a manner that did them honor."(1)

While, however, he was assuring Mr. Hecke welder that the christian Indians had nothing to fear, an officer came with great speed from one quarter of the camp, and reported that a particular division of the militia "were preparing to break off for the purpose of destroying the Moravian settlements up the river, and he feared they could not be restrained from so doing." Gen. Brodhead and Col. Shepherd of Wheeling, immediately took such measures as prevented it. (2)

The army then proceeded until within a few miles of Coshockton, when an Indian prisoner was taken. Soon after, two more Indians were discovered and fired upon, but notwithstanding one of them was wounded, both made their escape.

General Brodhead, knowing that these two Indians would endeavor to give immediate notice of the approach of the army, ordered a rapid march, in order to reach the town before them, and take it by supprise. This was done in the midst of a heavy fall of rain, and the plan succeeded. The army reached the place in three divisions,-the right and left wings approached the river a little above and below the town, while the centre marched directly upon it. The whole number of the Indians in the village, on the east side of the river, together with ten or twelve from a little village some distance above, were made prisoners, without firing a single shot. The river having risen to a great height, owing to the recent fall of rain, the army could not cross it. Owing to this, the villages on the west side of the river escaped destruction.

Among the prisoners, sixteen warriors were pointed out by Pekillon,

a friendly Delaware chief, who was with the army of General Brodhead. A little after dark, a council of war was held, to determine on the fate of the warriors. They were doomed to death. They were then bound, taken a little distance below the town, dispatched with tomahawks and spears, and scalped.

Early the next morning an Indian presented himself on the opposite bank of the river, and asked for the "Big Captain." General Brodhead presented himself, and asked the Indian what he wanted? The Indian replied, “I want peace." "Send over some of your chiefs," said Brodhead. "May be you kill." He was answered, "They shall (1) Heckewelder's Narrative, p. 214.

not be killed." One of the chiefs, a well looking man, came over the river and entered into conversation with General Brodhead in the street; but while engaged in conversation, a cowardly wretch, by the name of Wetzel, belonging to the army, came up behind him, with a tomahawk concealed in the bosom of his hunting shirt, and struck him a blow on the back of his head. He fell and instantly expired.

About mid-day the army commenced its retreat from Coshocton. General Brodhead committed the care of the prisoners to the militia. They were about twenty in number. After marching about a mile, the men commenced killing them, and did not cease until the whole were murdered and scalped, except a few women and children, who were spared and taken to Fort Pitt.(1) WILLIAMSON'S CAMPAIGN, AND MURDER OF THE MORAVIAN INDIANS.

About the year 1772, some missionaries of the order of Moravian brethren succeeded in establishing a community of Indians, who embraced their faith, and who were collected into three villages on the Muskingum. These villages were called Salem, Gnadenhuetten, and Shoenbrunn. Here they were induced to live in peace, and to engage in the cultivation of the soil, and had increased their numbers to four hundred people.

Occupying a position midway between the advanced settlements of the whites and the villages of some of the hostile Indians, and practising a pacific demeanor, which both parties alike despised, they were suspected by each alternately of secretly favoring the other.*

In the latter end of the year 1781, the militia of the frontier came to a determination to break up the Moravian villages on the Muskingum. They were called "The Half-way House of the Warriors ;" and this phrase began to be used in fierce derision, by the stern and lawless men on the frontier, who despised the peaceable Indians, who opened their doors alike to all comers. A detachment of men went out under the command of Col. Daniel Williamson, for the purpose of inducing the Indians with their teachers to move farther off, or bring them prisoners to Fort Pitt. When they arrived at the villages they found but few Indians, the greater number of them having removed to Sandusky. Those few were well treated, taken to Fort Pitt, and delivered to the commandant of that station, who, after a short detention sent them home again.

(I) Doddridge's Notes, p. 292-293.

This procedure gave great offence to the people of the country, who thought that the Indians ought to have been killed. Colonel Williamson, who before this little campaign, had been very popular on account of his activity and bravery in war, now became the subject of severe animadversions on account of his lenity to the Moravian Indians.(1)

On the other hand, these peaceable Indians fell under the suspicion of the Indian warriors who were in the service of the British, and also of the English commandant at Detroit, to whom it was reported that their teachers were in close confederacy with the American Congress, for preventing, not only their own people, but also the Delawares, and some other nations, from entering into the war against the American colonies.(2)

The frequent failures of the war expeditions of the Indians against the white settlements, were attributed to the Moravians, who often sent runners to Fort Pitt to give notice of their approach, and this charge was certainly true.

In the spring of 1781, the War Chief of the Delawares fully apprized the missionaries and their followers of their danger, both from the whites and hostile Indians, and requested them to remove to a place of safety from both. This request was not complied with, and the almost prophetic predictions of this chief were literally fulfilled. (3)

In the fall uf 1731, the settlements of the Moravians upon the Muskingum, were broken up by upwards of three hundred Indian warriors, their villages destroyed, their fields desolated, and these unhappy converts to Christianity turned into the wilderness upon the plains of Sandusky, where many of them perished by famine during the ensuing winter. The missionaries were taken prisoners, robbed of almost every thing, and sent to Detroit, where, after being strictly examined by a Council of British officers, they were permitted to return to their people at Sandusky.(4) This removal of the Moravians, by the hostile Indians, from their happy homes on the Muskingum to Sandusky, was at the instigation of three white men-Alexander McKee, Matthew Elliott, and Simon Girty. These three men, whose hostility to the American colonies was unbounded, were continually plotting the destruction of the Christian Indian settlements, as the only means of drawing the Delaware nation, and with these, the Christian Indians, into a war with the Americans. A plot was laid at Sandusky to take off the missionary Zeisber

(1) Doddridge's Notes, p. 262. (3) Doddridge's Notes, p. 259. (2) Doddridge's Notes, p. 260.

Hall's Sketches of the West, 1., p. 211.