1891-92. | AN EPISODE IN THE PONTIAC WAR. 245 
struck. I enquired of an Indian of the same nation as myself, who 
frequently had expressed a regard for me, whether or not I was to fall a 
sacrifice with these they were about to murder. At this question he was 
amazed at seeing me here, and without making any reply, hurried me 
through the crowd, and putting me into another room in the house 
charged me to lie close, make no noise, for otherwise I should be 
discovered and put to death, and locking the door he left me to ruminate 
on what had passed. I found in the same place two Dutch merchants 
in a similar position as myself, having been secreted by their different 
proprietors, who were desirous of saving them from the fury of their 
country men. During our confinement we heard the Indians making 
long harangues over their victims, telling them it was to make their 
nation prosper in the war against the English that they were to be killed. 
The poor captives were begging the Frenchmen who were looking on to 
intercede for them; one little boy in particular, (a drummer of the Ran- 
gers) about eleven or twelve years old, was crying bitterly, imploring 
their mercy, but alas! he knew not how vain it was to ask it of butchers 
whose hearts were steeled against every feeling of humanity. I ventured 
to creep to the side of the window where I saw them lead eight of the 
poor captives to the river side whom they massacred on the spot. Some 
of them they tomahawked, others they shot with their guns, while some 
were put to death by making the little boys shoot them with bows and 
arrows, in order to accustom them to cruelty and perfect them in the use 
of weapons. Thus they prolonged the pain of these unhappy men, and 
when one would fall the multitude would set up the most dreadful yells 
and shouts that can be imagined. When the objects of their barbarity 
were all dead they proceeded to scalp them, and some of the savages 
took the skin off their arms to make tobacco pouches of them, as they 
did with Captains Robson and Campbell. The first joints of the fingers 
were left dangling by way of tassels. They then threw the bodies into 
the river that they might flow down to the fort, that their countrymen 
might see specimens of what they should all undergo in a short time 
When this tragical scene was ended, the Indian who had hidden me 
came and set me at liberty, first leading me publicly through the crowd 
to convince me that there was no danger, and then conducted me to 
Perwash, who seemed very glad to see me safe, he having heard that the 
warriors were on the hunt after me for my destruction. The following 
cause was given for this last act of atrocity: an old squaw, the wife of a 
chief, dreamt that she saw ten Englishmen slain and scalped; this she 
recounted to the young warriors, who wished for nothing better than a 
pretext to make a frolic. She conjured them at the same time to make 
her dream good, otherwise she prophesied, they would not prosper in 
17 
