The War in the Northwest 191 



hostility; the Iroquois once sent word to the Chip- 

 pewas and Ottawas that they gave them the Chris- 

 tian Indians "to make broth of." 



The Americans became even more exasperated. 

 The war parties that plundered and destroyed their 

 homes, killing their wives, children, and friends with 

 torments too appalling to mention, got shelter and 

 refreshment from the Moravians, 1 who, indeed, 

 dared not refuse it. The backwoodsmen, roused to 

 a mad frenzy of rage by the awful nature of their 

 wrongs, saw that the Moravians rendered valuable 

 help to their cruel and inveterate foes, and refused 

 to see that the help was given with the utmost re- 

 luctance. Moreover, some of the young Christian 

 Indians backslid, and joined their savage brethren, 

 accompanying them on their war parties and rav- 

 aging with as much cruelty as any of their number. 2 

 Soon the frontiersmen began to clamor for the de- 

 struction of the Moravian towns; yet for a little 

 while they were restrained by the Continental offi- 

 cers of the few border forts, who always treated 

 these harmless Indians with the utmost kindness. 



On either side were foes, who grew less govern- 

 able day by day, and the fate of the hapless and 

 peaceful Moravians, if they continued to dwell on 

 the Muskingum, was absolutely inevitable. With 

 blind fatuity their leaders, the missionaries, refused 



1 Heckewelder's "Narrative of the Mission of the United 

 Brethren," Philadelphia, 1820 p. 166. 



2 "Pennsylvania Packet" (Philadelphia, April 16, 1782); 

 Heckewelder, 180; LoskiePs "History of the Mission of the 

 United Brethren" (London, 1794), p. 172. 



