238 The Winning of the West 



revolting deed, which should consign the names of 

 the perpetrators to eternal infamy. 



At once the frontier was in a blaze, and the In- 

 dians girded themselves for revenge. The Mingos 

 sent out runners to the other tribes, telling of the 

 butchery, and calling on all the red men to join to- 

 gether for immediate and bloody vengeance. 31 They 

 confused the two massacres, attributing both to 

 Cresap, whom they well knew as a warrior; 32 and 

 their women for long afterward scared the children 

 into silence by threatening them with Cresap's name 

 as with that of a monster. 33 They had indeed been 

 brutally wronged; yet it must be remembered that 

 they themselves were the first aggressors. They 

 had causelessly murdered and robbed many whites, 

 and now their sins had recoiled on the heads of the 

 innocent of their own race. The conflict could not 

 in any event have been delayed long; the frontiers- 

 men were too deeply and too justly irritated. These 

 particular massacres, however discreditable to those 



ward tried to palliate their misdeeds by stating that Logan's 

 brother, when drunk, insulted a white man, and that the 

 other Indians were at the time on the point of executing an 

 attack upon them. The last statement is self-evidently false; 

 for had such been the case, the Indians would, of course, 

 never have let some of their women and children put them- 

 selves in the power of the whites, and get helplessly drunk ; 

 and, anyhow, the allegations of such brutal and cowardly 

 murderers are entirely unworthy of acceptance, unless backed 

 up by outside evidence. 

 81 Jefferson MSS., 5th Series, Vol. I, Heckewelder's letter. 



32 Jefferson MSS. Deposition of Col. James Smith, May 25, 

 1798. 



33 Do., Heckewelder's letter. 



