166 TRAVELS IN THE CONFEDERATION 



last, absolutely, on the road to Wyoming, a distance 

 reckoned at 37 and one half miles from here. There- 

 fore Sebitz regards the ' Great Swamp ' as his best 

 friend because all travellers, coming or going, are 

 compelled to stop with him, and in consequence his 

 house, however sorry and draughty, is well supported 

 as a tavern. The entertainment in woods-hotels of this 

 stamp, in lonesome and remote spots throughout 

 America, consists generally of bacon, ham and eggs, 

 fresh or dried venison, coffee, tea, butter, milk, cheese, 

 rum, corn-whiskey or brandy, and cyder. And every- 

 thing clean. 



Sebitz, a German Anabaptist, settled here some nine 

 years ago, and two or three neighbors about the same 

 time. He paid for the land I Pd. Pensylv. Current the 

 acre. For fear of the Indians all his neighbors left 

 him during the war ; he alone had the courage to stay, 

 notwithstanding a whole family was murdered a mile 

 from his house. Often he was surrounded by Indians 

 who simply lurked about waiting for somebody to 

 open the door or come outside (for it is not their way 

 to enter a house forcibly) ; and they shot down his 

 horses and cattle. To be sure, he had with him a 

 militia guard because this place was looked upon as 

 an outpost ; but they lived all together behind closed 

 doors and barricaded, in continual fear of death ; they 

 opened to nobody without a close examination as to 

 whether who knocked was friend or foe. Such is the 

 doleful case of the frontiersman in times of an Indian 

 war. 



We met a troop of carpenters here who were like- 

 wise on the way to Wyoming, to re-build a mill burned 

 down by the Indians. We were very glad of their 



